FINRA's proposed rule change to extend the tier size pilot of FINRA Rule 6433 ("Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities") was published in the Federal Register. The proposed rule change is effective immediately, but comments may be submitted until September 3, 2015. See: Notice of Proposed Rule Change to Extend Tier Size Pilot of FINRA Rule 6433 ("Minimum Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities"). Related news: FINRA Publishes Proposal to Extend Tier Size Pilot Regarding OTC Equity Securities (May 18, 2015).

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, the Division of Clearing and Risk, and the Division of Market Oversight (collectively, the "Divisions") extended no-action relief to non-U.S. swap dealers from certain transaction-level requirements under the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC stated that in order to avoid market disruptions for their non-U.S. counterparties, non-U.S. swap dealers need sufficient time-limited relief to organize their internal policies and procedures to comply with the transaction-level requirements. Prior to September 30, 2016, or the effective date of

CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo was highly critical of the CFTC's no-action letter that extended relief to non-U.S. swap dealers from certain transaction-level requirements under the Commodity Exchange Act. In a public statement, he stated that "the benign-sounding 'Staff Advisory 13-69' should be permanently withdrawn because it represents a threat to American jobs and vital financial markets." Commissioner Giancarlo asserted that "when a regulatory action needs five delays, I think we all can admit that it is just not workable and should be scrapped," and that "doing so would be a

In a settlement with an alternative trading system, the SEC announced that a tech group and its affiliate agreed to pay $20.3 million to settle charges that it operated a secret trading desk and misused the confidential trading information of dark pool subscribers. An SEC investigation found that despite telling the public that it was an "agency-only" broker whose interests didn't conflict with its customers, the company operated an undisclosed proprietary trading desk known as "Project Omega" for more than a year. While the company claimed to protect the confidentiality of its dark pool

The SEC charged 32 defendants with fraud for taking part in "a scheme to profit from stolen nonpublic information about corporate earnings announcements" that generated "more than $100 million in illegal profits." According to the SEC's complaint, two Ukrainian defendants hid the "intrusions" by using "proxy servers to mask their identities and by posing as newswire service employees and customers." The SEC further charged that the two Ukrainian defendants created "a secret web-based location" to transmit the stolen data to traders in Russia, Ukraine, Malta, Cyprus, France and three U.S