MSRB Notice No. 2011-52 September 12, 2011 The MSRB published a regulatory notice to address the potential applicability of its rules, and the federal securities laws generally, to direct purchases of municipal securities or bank loans, which may be used by state and local governments as alternatives to public offerings of their securities. The notice states that certain of these financings may be considered "municipal securities," and thus would subject the transactions and participants to a number of federal securities laws. In particular, the notice states that a broker-dealer that serves

UK Parliament September 16, 2011 On 5 July 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a Eurosystem Oversight Framework (1). This includes a policy that central counterparties that clear euro-denominated credit derivatives above certain thresholds (€5 billion average daily net credit exposure or 5% of certain product categories) must, "be legally incorporated in the euro area with full managerial and operational control and responsibility over all core functions, exercised from within the euro area." The UK considers that this policy is contrary to fundamental single market principles and

FINRA RN 11-42 September 16, 2011 FINRA published a regulatory notice to provide firms with information on the qualification examination that will be required for operations professionals. As a result of new FINRA Rule 1230(b)(6), certain individuals engaged in, responsible for, or supervising certain member firm operations functions will be required to register with FINRA and take a qualification examination. The new exam, Series 99, is a 2 ½ hour multiple-choice test, and employees may begin taking it from October 17, 2011. For more information about this document, you may contact one of the

76 FR XXX (SEC Release No. 33-9259; 34-65343; IC-29788) September 15, 2011 The SEC published a final rule to announce that amendments to Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 will become effective on the date the notice is published in the Federal Register. The rule had been stayed pending the outcome of a D.C. Circuit decision on the rule's validity. The D.C. Circuit invalidated Exchange Act Rule 14a-11, but left in place the amendments to Rule 14a-8, the shareholder proposal rule. Cross References Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 Business Roundtable v. SEC, No-10-1305 (D.C. Cir. July 22, 2011) SEC Press Release No

Temporary and Conditional Relief from the Requirements of §§ 20.3 and 20.4 of the Commission's Regulations Regarding Large Swaps Trader Reporting for Physical Commodities CFTC Press Release 6113-11 CFTC's Division of Market Oversight issued a letter providing temporary relief from the requirements of the CFTC's regulations issued on July 22, 2011 regarding large trader reporting of physical commodity swaps. The relief is intended to provide sufficient time to enable both the industry and the CFTC to develop and refine systems and processes that will be able to report these complex transactions