The U.S. Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation ("DTCC") and the CFTC agreed to dismiss the remaining claims in the DTCC's lawsuit against the CFTC for its approval of rules permitting clearinghouses to steer swap trading data to the clearinghouse's affiliated swap data repository ("SDR"). Originally, the CFTC proposed the requirement that parties to a swap be able to select the SDR to which their data would be reported. This CFTC position, which was encapsulated in one of the CFTC's series of Frequently Asked Questions, was challenged in court by the CME Group Inc. ("CME"). In order to

A panel of the New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX") Business Conduct Committee, which is part of the CME Group, issued a disciplinary action against Goldman Sachs Co. for executing block trades in futures contracts that were not reported to the Exchange within the applicable time limit following their execution. NYMEX also found that Goldman reported inaccurate execution times for these block trades. In connection with a settlement of the matter, the panel ordered Goldman to pay a $40,000 fine. S ee: NYMEX 10-04626-BC.

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight issued no-action relief to Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand to operate an educational not-for-profit market for event contracts. According to the letter, Victoria University's proposed market for event contracts is similar to the University of Iowa Electronic Markets ("IEM"), which were granted no-action relief by the CFTC Division of Trading and Markets in letters dated February 5, 1992 and June 18, 1993. Like the IEM, Victoria University's proposed market for event contracts (i) consists of submarkets for binary contracts concerning

At the SIFMA Complex Products Forum, SEC Division of Investment Management Director Norm Champ delivered remarks about issues, challenges and opportunities related to complex products. Specifically, Mr. Champ focused on the SEC's enhanced risk monitoring of complex products and review of alternative mutual funds disclosures. Mr. Champ addressed the various media through which the SEC monitors complex products, such as reviewing requests for no-action and exemptive relief, disclosure filings, and guidance updates. He stated that, through such analyses, the SEC is able to evaluate the benefits

The SEC announced charges against an investment advisory firm and three top officials for violating the "custody rule" that requires firms to follow certain procedures when they control or have access to client money or securities. In the order in which the charges were made, the SEC alleged that Sands Brothers Asset Management LLC has been at least 40 days late repeatedly in providing investors with audited financial statements for its private funds. Additionally, the SEC alleged that the firm's cofounders and chief compliance officer were responsible for the firm's failure to comply with the