A broker-dealer agreed to settle SEC charges for improper practices relating to securities lending transactions involving pre-released American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"). According to the SEC's Order, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated ("Merrill") improperly borrowed pre-released ADRs from brokers who had borrowed the shares from ADR depositaries but did not own the necessary foreign shares to support the ADRs. The Order found that Merrill should have known that those brokers did not own the necessary shares. The SEC stated that the practices led to an inflation of the total

The U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"), along with the U.S. State Department, designated 14 individuals and 17 entities allegedly connected to Iran's Organization of Defense Innovation and Research, which played a central role in Iran's nuclear weapons efforts. As a result of OFAC's action, all property and interests in property of these targets in the U.S. or within the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally forbid all dealings by U.S. persons or in the U.S. that concern property or

The MSRB proposed to amend MSRB Rule G-11 (Primary Offering Practices) and Rule G-32 (Disclosures in Connection with Primary Offerings). According to the MSRB, the proposal is intended to improve the general practices that underwriters undertake in a primary offering of municipal securities. The proposed amendments to Rule G-11 would: improve the information dissemination requirements to obligate the senior syndicate manager to release "free-to-trade" information to all syndicate and selling group members simultaneously; mandate that the syndicate manager provides the issuer with information

In a Brookings Institute working paper, former CFTC Chair Timothy Massad urged Congress to bolster regulation of crypto-assets. Mr. Massad pointed out that new crypto exchanges and trading platforms are not held to the same standards required of securities and derivatives market intermediaries, resulting in weak investor protection. In part, this has allowed crypto-assets to be used to circumvent sanctions, and to facilitate payment for illegal activities. Mr. Massad argued against deferring to state law with respect to regulating crypto-assets. He recommended that Congress: pass legislation

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") reported that derivatives trading revenue of insured U.S. commercial banks and savings associations dropped to $4.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. This represented a $2.9 billion (or 41 percent) decrease over revenue compared to the previous quarter and $1.7 billion less (or 28.5 percent) than last year. In addition, the report found that derivative notional amounts went down in the fourth quarter of 2018 14.8 percent to $176.4 trillion and that derivative contracts continued to be concentrated in interest rate products. The report