The Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") voted to adopt and formalize certain practices relating to its process for reviewing non-bank financial companies for potential designation, with the stated goals of promoting active engagement with companies under consideration and increasing transparency to the public. FSOC's supplemental guidance describing these procedures is available here. The changes, which are effective immediately, fall into three categories: Heightened Engagement with Companies under Evaluation. FSOC will notify any non-bank financial company under consideration

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin to warn investors about fraudulent investment schemes involving purportedly high-yield, risk-free international finance programs. In the Investor Bulletin, the SEC warns that all "prime bank" investment programs are fraudulent. According to the SEC, the promoters of such programs attempt to make their schemes sound legitimate by using complex, sophisticated and official-sounding language. The Investor Bulletin lists "red flags" that could signal "prime bank" fraud, and recommends that investors avoid investing money

The Joint Forum of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, IOSCO and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors issued a publication titled "Developments in Credit Risk Management Across Sectors: Current Practices and Recommendations." The Joint Forum analyzed the results of surveys of 15 supervisors and 23 firms in the banking, securities and insurance sectors, and focused on the current supervisory framework around credit risk, the state of credit risk management at firms, and the implications for the supervisory and regulatory treatments of credit risk. Based on the

FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC to amend the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes and the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes relating to schedule changes for a hearing. The proposed rule change would affect Rules 12214, 12601, 13214 and 13601, and would require that either the parties give more advance notice before canceling or postponing a hearing, or a higher late cancellation fee be assessed if such notice is not provided. Se e: Text of Proposed Rule Change.

The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") released a set of recommendations intended to improve important operational elements of the new clearing infrastructure for over-the-counter derivatives. The recommendations, which were developed by FIA's Clearing Swaps Operations Committee, are arranged into two sections: swap execution facilities ("SEFs") and derivatives clearing organizations ("DCOs"). FIA suggested that SEFs: ensure that a pre-trade limit check is performed on all trades executed on an SEF; generate or receive a unique limit token for all screened orders that should be passed on to