The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") extended no-action relief, which was granted in CFTC Letter 14-118, to swap execution facilities ("SEFs") from the "occurs-away" requirement under CFTC Rule 43.2 ("Definitions"). Relief was granted in order to (i) give DMO staff sufficient time to continue to review and evaluate SEF trading practices and functionalities for pre-execution credit checks; and (ii) allow the DMO to consider, develop and evaluate best practices and permanent solutions to the issues involved in screening block trade orders for compliance with risk-based limits, including

The MFA submitted a petition for rulemaking to the CFTC, urging it to make a number of changes to regulations governing swap trading. In particular, the petition recommended that the CFTC: codify existing CFTC staff guidance around the implementation of the CFTC's impartial access requirements under CFTC Rule 37.202(c); codify existing CFTC staff guidance regarding "straight-through processing" (CFTC Rules 1.73, 1.74, 39.12(b)(7)); prohibit post-trade name disclosure by swap execution facilities ("SEFs") for swaps that are executed anonymously (CFTC Rule 37.7); facilitate SEF/designated

In a paper titled "The Best Execution of Corporate Bonds," Cornell University Finance Professor Maureen O'Hara, Fordham University Business Professor Yihui Wang and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Economist Xing Zhou provide "strong evidence of best execution failures in corporate bond trading." Using an "extensive sample" of bond trades by insurance companies, the paper found that (i) an insurance company entering a trade of similar size and on the same side for the same bond on the same day with the same dealer will receive a better price if it is more active as an investor

Senator Elizabeth Warren conducted an investigation of fifteen leading annuity providers to determine whether they offered their sales agents non-cash incentives and other perks to promote their products. The resulting report, titled Villas, Castles, and Vacations: How Perks and Giveaways Create Conflicts of Interest in the Annuity Industry, asserts that 13 of the 15 companies - or 87% - offered sales bonuses to selling agents whose customers were often unaware of these incentives. According to the report, these sales incentives typically included all-expense-paid trips to vacation

The CFTC approved the NFA's Interpretive Notice to NFA Compliance Rules 2-9, 2-36 and 2-49 titled Information Systems Security Programs, requiring member firms to adopt and enforce written policies and procedures to secure customer data and access to their electronic systems. The NFA Interpretive Notice outlined those key areas that electronic Information Systems Security Programs ("ISSPs") must contain: a security and risk analysis; a description of the safeguards against identified system threats and vulnerabilities; the process used to evaluate the nature of a detected security event