The SEC announced that it will not recommend enforcement action against TACT Asset Management Inc. ("TACT") under Section 203(a) of the Advisers Act if TACT does not register with the Commission as an investment adviser under the Advisers Act. TACT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management Co., Ltd. ("SJNAM"), and its only client was to be be Nipponkoa Insurance Co., Ltd. ("Nipponkoa"). Section 203(b)(2) of the Advisers Act exempts from registration any adviser whose only clients are insurance companies. The argument made in the incoming letter was that, even

New rules and rule proposals from CME and NYSE Arca. Click on the links to view the SEC notices for each rule change and proposal. CME: Proposed Rule - Change Regarding the Valuation of Securities on Deposit NYSE Arca: Proposed Rule - Change to List and Trade Units of the Sprott Physical Platinum and Palladium Trust Pursuant to NYSE Arca Equities Rule 8.201 NYSE Arca: Proposed Rule - Change Amending the NYSE Arca Options Fee Schedule to Change the Monthly Cost for Options Trading Permits

The CFTC issued an interpretative statement as to the conditions under which information held by a Swap Data Repository could be accessed by a non-U.S. government. The statement exempts foreign regulators from either entering into a confidentiality agreement relating to such data or from agreeing to any indemnity in connection with any litigation relating to the data. Under the guidance, non-U.S. regulators can "access data in which they have an independent and sufficient regulatory interest, even if that data also has been reported pursuant to the CEA and Commission regulations." In order to

Rule 900 of the Commission's Rules of Practice (17 CFR 201.900) requires the Commission's Secretary to issue a six-month status report on the Commission's administrative proceedings caseload. The report identifies the number of matters pending before the administrative law judges and the Commission at the beginning of the six-month period; the number of matters instituted, filed, and disposed of during the period; and the number pending at the end of the period. For each category of decision, the report shows the median age of the matters at the time of decision and the number of matters

The SEC filed an insider trading civil action against an employee who traded on the basis of information, gained during his employment, that the store's sales were "performing better than planned (although not as well as the previous year on a comparable-store-sales basis)". Lofchie Comment: Why did the SEC put in the parenthetical about sales being down on a comparable-store basis? Perhaps to show that the news received by the employee was not uniformly positive and thus the fact that the employee had to exercise judgment as to whether the news was, on the whole, good or bad did not prevent