FINRA RN 11-32 July 18, 2011 FINRA published an FAQ to guide firms on automated regulatory reporting pursuant to new FINRA Rule 4530, which became effective on July 1, 2011. The rule requires firms to report to FINRA certain specified events and quarterly statistical information on written customer complaints and to file with FINRA copies of certain criminal actions, civil complaints, and arbitration claims. In particular, the FAQ provides firms guidance on (i) reporting of internal conclusions as to rule violations; (ii) what it means for a violation to have potential "widespread"

SEC Release No. 34-64926 July 20, 2011 The SEC and CFTC published a request for public comment on a study, required by the Dodd-Frank Act, on international swap regulation. The intent of the study is to identify "areas of [swap] regulation that are similar and other areas of regulation that could be harmonized" between the U.S. and other countries. Section 719(c) of Dodd-Frank requires the SEC and CFTC to publish the report to Congress by January 2012; public submissions for the study are due 60 days from the date the notice is published in the Federal Register. On a related matter, the SEC

FINRA RN 11-33 July 22, 2011 FINRA published a regulatory notice to announce that October 17, 2011 will be the effective date for its recently approved rule changes to establish a registration category and qualification examination requirement for certain operations personnel. In addition, the regulatory notice provides a lengthy outline of the rule's requirements. The rule generally covers (1) senior management with certain operations functions; (2) supervisors and other persons responsible for authorizing certain operations functions; and (3) persons with the authority or discretion to

SEC Release No. 34-64884; SR-FINRA-2011-033 July 14, 2011 The SEC declared immediately effective a FINRA proposal to adopt new FINRA Rule 0180, regarding the application of FINRA's rules to security-based swaps. The new rule seeks to provide relief akin to what the SEC has already provided, e.g., the rule does not grant relief from certain FINRA conduct rules. In particular, the new rule does not exempt security-based swaps from (i) FINRA Rule 2010 (standards of commercial honor and principles of trade); (ii) FINRA Rule 2020 (antifraud rule); (iii) FINRA Rule 3310 (AML program); and (iv) FINRA

SEC ReleaseNo. 34-64874 July 13, 2011 The SEC adopted interim final temporary Exchange Act Rule 15b12-1T to allow broker-dealers to continue to engage in retail foreign exchange business until July 16, 2012. In the absence of this relief, such transactions would have been prohibited pursuant to Dodd-Frank Section 742(c), which requires these transactions to be with "eligible contract participants." Please contact any of the following Cadwalader attorneys if you have any questions about this item: Steven Lofchie; [email protected] Jeffrey Robins; [email protected] Cross References