The plaintiffs argue that the court's decision for ISDA, and against the CFTC, in the position limits case had the effect of vacating certain amendments to the definition of "bona fide" hedging which are cross-referenced in CFTC Rule 4.5; thus, the CFTC cannot enforce the version of Rule 4.5 that relies upon the vacated amendments. See: Supplemental Memorandum: ICI and Chamber of Commerce v. CFTC (12-cv-00612). Related News Stories: ICI and U.S. Chamber of Commerce vs. CFTC (Challenging CFTC's Denial of Complete CPO Exemption for RICs) (with Materials) (with Lofchie Comment); ISDA v. CFTC

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") began soliciting responses to its annual enforcement survey in March 2012. This year, 48 U.S. NASAA members responded to the survey request, a response rate of 94 percent. NASAA reported a significant increase in enforcement actions against investment adviser firms last year and a sharp rise in prison time for securities law violators. According to the survey, the number of enforcement actions involving investment adviser firms nearly doubled to 399 in 2011, and accounted for 15 percent of all enforcement actions handled by

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler delivered a speech at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's (SIFMA) 2012 Annual Meeting in which he discussed a variety of issues relating to the financial markets and swaps regulation. Many of the themes that he touched upon had been the subject of past speeches. He did not say much as to current developments other than that, as of October 12, "common-sense reforms are becoming a reality." View speech in full here (links externally to CFTC website).

The SEC is adopting new Rule 17Ad-22 in accordance with Section 17A of the Exchange Act, Section 763 of Title VII ("Title VII") of the Dodd-Frank Act, and Section 805 of Title VIII ("Title VIII") of the Dodd-Frank Act. Rule 17Ad-22 establishes minimum requirements regarding how registered clearing agencies must maintain effective risk management procedures and controls, as well as meet the statutory requirements under the Exchange Act on an ongoing basis. The rule is NOT limited to firms that clear security-based swaps ("swaps"); it applies to all SEC-registered clearing agencies, although

The MSRB filed proposed amendments that would allow underwriters to satisfy certain submission requirements on disclosures in connection with primary offerings by their submission of data to the New Issue Information Dissemination Service ("NIIDS"). In addition, the proposed amendments would accomplish the following: revise deadlines for the submission of data to NIIDS, remove certain exceptions from the NIIDS submission requirements under Rule G-34 for certain short-term instruments, modify the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system to include certain elements of the NIIDS data on