Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Mark Highman is a securities and derivatives regulation lawyer based in New York. He represents broker-dealers, investment advisers, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisers on their regulatory requirements under US federal securities laws and the Commodity Exchange Act.
Mark advises regulated firms on the SEC, CFTC, FINRA, FinCEN and NFA Rules, including the requirements applicable to employees, communications, customers, anti-money laundering, privacy, research, recordkeeping, trading, and supervision.
Recent Articles & Comments
FINRA continues to bring enforcement actions against broker-dealers for failure to include the "No Remuneration" indicator in TRACE reports, where required. In light of the regulatory focus on TRACE reports, firms should review their TRACE reporting systems and procedures to check that they are including required indicators. In this case, the firm failed to include the required no remuneration indicators on TRACE and MSRB reports for transactions with affiliates.
In…
Here are some considerations on the increase in the Portfolio Requirement thresholds under CFTC :
Scope of Investors Affected by the new Portfolio Requirement thresholds. QEPs fall into two categories:(i) Investors who qualify as QEPs without having to meet the Portfolio Requirement. These include "qualified purchasers" and "knowledgeable employees" who are eligible to invest in funds falling within of the Investment Company Act. These investors…
This is the second FINRA settlement this month for failure to include a required "No Remuneration" indicator on TRACE reports. (See .) In light of FINRA's focus on this issue, firms should review the requirements of FINRA Rule 6730(d)(1)(A) and FINRA Rule 6730(d)(4)(F), as well as related TRACE Reporting FAQs, which explain the circumstances in which TRACE reports should include the No Remuneration indicator.
In addition, the settlement emphasizes the importance of conducting…
This is the third amendment to the CFTC's SEF Exemption Order issued to the Monetary Authority of Singapore and brings the total number of exempt Singapore SEFs to 18. A list of the exempt Singapore SEFs is available .