In this statement, Commissioner Chilton puts forth a proposal for how Congress might craft a new law to protect customer funds. His proposal includes the following three recommendations: The establishment of a Futures Investor and Customer Protection Fund FICPA would create a separate nonprofit Corporation and a Board of Directors for Futures Interests Futures Customers would have the right to file claims with a Trustee for priority treatment [SL Comment: To continue my general stream of cynical comments as to Dodd-Frank, to my mind, the statute was inappropriately sold to the press as a cure

BATS - Effective Immediately - Related to Fees for Use of BATS Exchange BYX - Effective Immediately - Related to Fees for Use of BATS Y-Exchange CBOE - Final Rule - Permanent Approval of its Pilot on FLEX Minimum Value Sizes NASDAQ - Final Rule - Listing and Trading of Alpha Index-Linked Securities NYSE Arca - Effective Immediately - Add an Additional Tier to the Lead Market Maker Rights Fee and an Alternative Qualification Basis for Market-Makers that Post Liquidity in Penny Pilot Issues and Options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF

The MFA submitted this letter to ESMA in support of including a requirement for straight-through processing in ESMA’s regulatory technical standards. The MFA argued that straight-through processing of derivatives transactions will ensure that parties to a derivative transaction are informed as close to real time as possible whether or not a transaction is accepted for clearing. The MFA also recommended that the EMIR RTS should mandate the compression or elimination of the time between execution and confirmation of clearing acceptance. View comment letter here (links externally to MFA website).

The MFA submitted this letter in response to IOSCO's Consultation Paper on Principles of Liquidity Risk Management for Collective Investment Schemes, expressing both general support for the principles proposed and concerns regarding the accompanying specific recommendations. The MFA encouraged IOSCO to: differentiate between the various regular liquidity risk management tools used by hedge funds and "exceptional measures"; revise IOSCO's recommendations concerning governance to reflect differences in hedge fund manager structures; and modify IOSCO's recommendations concerning the ongoing

The MFA, SIFMA AMG, ICI and IAA submitted this joint summary to the CFTC Commissioners relating to concerns with gaps in the customer protections provided by the CFTC's LSOC segregation model for cleared swaps. The trade associations emphasize their expectation that LSOC would protect all customer margin from "fellow-customer risk." Further, the letter expresses the expectation that FCMs would be required to report the identity, positions and margin of each of their customers to derivatives clearing organizations. Recommendations were made urging the CFTC to use rule revisions, interpretative