FINRA (along with NYSE Arca, NASDAQ, NASDAQ OMX BX, and BATS) announced that they have censured and fined Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services, LLC (a New York-based self-clearing broker-dealer) $3.4 million for a number of violations including manipulative trading activities and failure to comply with anti-money laundering requirements. Hold Brothers primarily operates as a day-trading firm by facilitating direct market access (largely foreign, primarily Chinese) customers. It appears that a major part of the manipulation involved the firm attempting to trick the trading algorithms of

In a speech at the SIFMA Regional Conference, Gallagher says that the SEC must prioritize its rulemaking in light of the theoretical extent of required rulemaking. He is moderately explicit that the SEC cannot reasonably adopt all of the rules that Congress has charged it with adopting, and so the SEC must choose the ones on which to focus. In this regard, he points to the recent releases relating to conflict minerals as being well-intentioned, but essentially relating to matters that are outside of the SEC's expertise. He also states that he believes that even within the securities area

The OCC Division of Corporation Finance responded to a letter from Pentair, Inc. and Flow Control International Ltd. The principal concern addressed in the letter was whether one issuer would be deemed a "successor" to another for purposes of, among other things, eligibility to use Form S-3, compliance with the current public information requirements of Rule 144(c)(1) under the Securities Act and filing new registration statements under the Securities Act for ongoing offerings of securities. Cross-Reference(s): Exchange Act Rule 12g-3 and 12b-2; Securities Act Rule 144(c)(1) and 414. View

CME Group released a letter to its clients, addressing whether customers can continue to use CME ClearPort after October 12, 2012 in the customary manner. CME Group stated that it will continue to offer the full suite of services currently available. The gist of the CME's message is that it calls its products "futures," not "swaps," so that its products are not hit by many of the Title VII requirements. Lofchie Comment: This is one of a number of new product developments that demonstrates the illogic of a regulatory system that treats fundamentally similar products (futures and swaps) in

The CFTC is revising a system of records under the Privacy Act of 1974, CFTC–15, Large Trader Report Files (Integrated Surveillance System), and renaming the system ‘‘Enterprise Surveillance, Oversight Risk Monitoring System’’ to be more descriptive of its contents and enhancements. Comments Due: October 24, 2012. This action will be effective without further notice on November 5, 2012, unless revised pursuant to comments received. View release here(links externally to CFTC website).