It is fair to say that there remain numerous open questions as to both how mandated central clearing of US government securities will work and whether it will work; (i.e. reduce volatility without unduly increasing costs in a world where the value of US government securities is growing at a rate materially faster than economic growth generally.)

These may be the first enforcement actions for failing to make 13H filings. That the SEC brought 11 enforcement actions for disclosure failures under Section 13(f) should be a warning to others.  

Where there is a new "type" of enforcement action, it is not uncommon for it to be the start of a trend. Firms that trade significant amounts of equities and that are not registered would be well advised to confirm that they are not subject to the Rule. Additionally, broker-…

It is not terribly satisfying to have accounting rules that are completely fact-specific. That the agency's Chief Accountant is now retreating from the SEC's original application of SAB 121 demonstrates that further public comment should have been sought before its adoption.  

Whatever one thinks of whether futures contracts on elections should be prohibited, that is an entirely different question from whether the CFTC has statutory authority to prohibit them. (See .) If the CFTC believes that such contacts should be banned, the CFTC should have gone to Congress to seek the authority to do so. Courts should no longer assume that regulators have the authority that they assert.