The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued no-action relief regarding compliance by swap dealers with regulations that concern, among other things, business conduct and trading documentation. The no-action relief was issued in connection with swaps entered into by structured finance special purpose vehicles prior to October 10, 2013. The relief was granted in response to a request by the Structured Finance Industry Group. It is subject to further conditions specified in the letter. See: CFTC Letter 15-21; CFTC Press Release.

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued five separate no-action letters to CPOs regarding the reporting requirements in CFTC Rules 4.22 and 4.7. In letters 15-16, 15-17 and 15-18, the CFTC granted no-action relief to three CPOs of commodity pools from Rule 4.22(d), which requires that the financial statements included in the pool's annual report be audited. Additionally, in letters 15-19 and 15-20, the CFTC granted no-action relief to two CPOs of commodity pools that operate pursuant to an exemption under Rule 4.7(3). The relief allows the CPOs to file 14-month

SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher delivered remarks at the Vanderbilt Law School's 17th Annual Law and Business Conference. He spoke about what he called the "critical capital formation issues" faced by the SEC. Commissioner Gallagher stated that while he is pleased with the SEC's recent adoption of changes to Regulation A+ ("Reg. A"), the rule is "not as good as it could have been." He encouraged companies to ensure Reg. A's success by reporting any inefficiencies in the regulatory scheme as they begin to use the new rules to raise capital. He also stated that while the revisions to Reg. A

The SEC announced charges against a day trader who allegedly manipulated the securities of a microcap company in order to drive the company's stock price above the minimum required for listing on Nasdaq Capital Market. The SEC alleged that the day trader engaged repeatedly in marking-the-close trades and entered into matched trades in shares of Cyberdefender Corp., a now-defunct computer software company, in order to maintain the price of the company at or above $4.00 per share. According to the SEC, the day trader also profited from his scheme by more than $650,000, mainly by exercising

The SEC announced fraud charges against an investment adviser and the firms she controlled for hiding the poor performance of loan assets in three of the collateralized loan obligation ("CLO") funds they managed. According to the SEC, the investment adviser and her Patriarch Partner firms breached their fiduciary duties and defrauded clients by failing to value assets using the methodology described to investors in offering documents for the CLO funds, which contained portfolios composed of loans to distressed customers. Instead, the SEC alleged, nearly all valuations of loan assets were