For large broker-dealers that may be "covered broker-dealers" and so would be subject to orderly liquidation, the key question is this: whether any aspect of the proposed process could make them appear unattractive as parties to Qualified Financial Contracts, or raise the cost for them of entering into such contracts.

This case highlights the need for firms to anticipate conflicts of interest that may arise from research analysts' relationships with the management of companies they research. These relationships may serve a legitimate research function, but they also introduce the possibility, as here, that an analyst will avoid downgrading a company in order to maintain a good relationship with its management. This is especially true when an analyst's compensation is based (at least in part) on the access…

In essence, this no-action relief fixes unintentional overreach in the original CFTC registration requirement, which seemed to mandate the CFTC registration of a non-U.S. intermediary doing business with a non-U.S. person – a result that makes no sense. While CFTC Commissioners continue to effect small fixes to problems that arose from rushed rulemaking, it would be nice to see them take on some bigger fixes as well (e.g., a procedure for requiring exchange trading). It would also be…

Financial institutions are fighting the rule because they believe it will do them damage. If firms were genuinely indifferent, as the legislators suggest, they would not oppose the rule.