MFA Comment Letter RIN 3038-AD30 April 12, 2011 MFA submitted comments to the CFTC on its proposed amendments to commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) compliance obligations. Among other things, MFA commented on the CFTC's proposed amendments to section 4.5, arguing that they could be overly burdensome to some RICs and their sponsors. MFA proposed (a) that section 4.5 be amended only with respect to the Marketing Test, and (b) that the Commission grant disclosure document delivery and Part 4 disclosure relief to CPOs offering commodity derivatives mutual funds and

April 13, 2011 At the latest in the LMA's series of loan operations/settlement seminars, held on 12 April 2011, Joe Widner, Global Head of Loan Processing at Markit, demonstrated how fully electronic settlement of loan transactions will take place on Markit Clear, the trade settlement platform operated by Markit. The company expects to introduce the service in the European market in 2011.

April 14, 2011 The Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) - in administration ("LBIE") have today updated the creditor community with details of their progress in the last six month period of the Administration. The announcement said that key achievements to date included: A Consensual Approach for the agreement of unsecured claims has been launched and we are close to having issued the first 100 Claims Determination Deeds to creditors with an aggregate claims value of approximately £1.1bn. We have concluded a major change programme to achieve full independence of the

FINRA RN 11-18 April 15, 2011 FINRA published a notice to advise firms of the release of the Securities Industry/Regulatory Council on Continuing Education's Spring 2011 Firm Element Advisory. The advisory, contains a broad overview of FINRA initiatives from the last six months, identifies regulatory and sales practice topics that firms should consider including in training plans. Cross References Spring 2011 Firm Element Advisory

FINRA AWC Letter No. 2008013863701 April 14, 2011 FINRA announced a $1.5 million fine (and $425,000 in required returns to customers) against a broker-dealer for its alleged failure to disclose certain compensation received and conflicts of interest in connection with sales of auction rate securities (ARS). The FINRA action alleges that three brokers at the firm failed to disclose that they received compensation for transactions in ARS which they purchased for accounts over which they had discretionary authority. FINRA also found that the brokers "failed to disclose the existence of comparable