The Securities Industry/Regulatory Council on Continuing Education (Council) has released its Fall 2012 Firm Element Advisory (FEA). The purpose of the FEA is to identify regulatory and sales practice topics that firms should consider in their Firm Element training plans. The following subjects include: Alternative Investments; AML; Books and Records; Business Continuity; Communications with the Public; Corporate Finance and Institutional Business; Customer Accounts; Dispute Resolution; Political Contributions by Investment Advisers; Fact Act and Flags Rule; Finance and Operations; Insurance

T he MSRB announced that Marcy Edwards, a Senior Financial Policy Advisor to the District of Columbia's Chief Financial Officer, has joined the MSRB Board of Directors for a three-year term. View release in full here (links externally to MSRB website).

To further its obligations under the regulation on short selling, and certain aspects of credit default swaps, which becomes effective on November 1, 2012, the European Securities and Markets Association has published a number of links to websites: operated or supervised by Member State authorities through which market participants may disclose net short positions in shares; and on which information about the national process for submitting notifications and disclosure of net short positions can be obtained.

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

Her Majesty’s Treasury has published draft legislation intended to implement key recommendations made by the Independent Commission on Banking on the reform of the UK banking system. The draft bill will now be scrutinised by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards before formally being introduced to Parliament in early 2013. The Government expects to have the legislation finalised by 2015, with banks being required to comply with all aspects of the Independent Commission’s recommendations starting in 2019. Link to relevant HM Treasury web page here (links externally to HM Treasury