FINRA Reg. Notice 12-15 Pursuant to an SEC order, FINRA has established an accounting support fee (GASB Accounting Support Fee) to adequately fund the annual budget of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). For 2012, FINRA will assess and collect a total of $8,451,300 for the GASB Accounting Support Fee by collecting $2,112,825 from its member firms each calendar quarter. The GASB Accounting Support Fee will be collected quarterly from member firms that report trades to the MSRB. Each member firm’s assessment will be based on the member firm’s portion of the total par value of

See the Guidance Release here. The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight of the CFTC is issuing this letter to assist CPOs with the preparation and filing of commodity pool annual financial reports required under the CEA and CFTC regulations, and to provide information regarding recently adopted regulatory changes. This letter highlights current regulatory changes affecting CPOs with respect to financial filings and provides reminders of regulatory requirements in response to common deficiencies observed in prior years’ annual reports. CPOs, including those that operate in non-U.S

The latest SEC Enforcement Action concerning the Investment Advisers Act -- Jason Pflaum; IA-3380 (released 03/07/2012).

Financial Services Authority February 17, 2012 The FSA has published a memorandum on transactions in flex derivatives contracts conducted through Eurex OTC. The memorandum confirms that the FSA and approved reporting mechanisms (ARMs) will obtain the instrument reference data for Eurex flex derivatives contracts, which will enable the FSA to identify and accept the instruments for particular transactions.

The Supreme Court February 29, 2012 The Supreme Court has handed down its judgment on the treatment of client money that had not been segregated, or that had been improperly segregated, as at the date that Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (" LBIE") entered into administration. In its ruling, the Court determined that: (i) a statutory trust arose when LBIE received the money and not on segregation; (ii) money does not have to be in a client account to be client money, but can equally be held in a house account of an insolvent firm; and (iii) clients whose cash had not been properly