The CFTC issued no-action relief to a CPO from the requirement to have an independent public accountant audit the financial statement of its pool's annual report, pursuant to CFTC Rules 4.7(b)(3)(i) and 4.22(d), for the fiscal year ending on December 31, 2013. The no-action relief was granted under the condition that the CPO must file with the NFA and distribute unaudited financial statements to participants for the fiscal year 2013. See: CFTC Letter 14-128.

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") announced an extension of previous no-action relief that provided additional time for futures commission merchants ("FCMs") to comply with CFTC rules requiring FCMs to obtain acknowledgement letters from certain depositories. CFTC rules require that an FCM deposit customer funds only with depositories that have provided it with an acknowledgement letter in which such depositories agree to provide the DSIO Director with direct, read-only electronic access to transaction and account balance information for FCM customer accounts

The CFTC announced that it revoked the registration of iFinix Futures, Inc. ("iFinix"), which had been registered with the CFTC as an independent introducing broker, following a permanent injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Judgment Officer's Initial Decision on Default, revoking the registration of iFinix, became a final order of the CFTC on October 8, 2014. See: CFTC Press Release. Related news: CFTC Obtains Default Judgment against iFinix Futures, Inc. and Its Senior Executive Officer (September 26, 2013); Proceedings before the Commodity Futures

At MFA's "Outlook 2014," CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad delivered remarks that focused on cross-border international harmonization. Chairman Massad stated that he shares many of the concerns of market participants about the potential for harm if the derivatives reforms adopted by different jurisdictions are not the same. He reminded market participants, however, that the OTC derivatives industry "grew up to be a global industry without any regulation," and that, inevitably, there will be differences between various G-20 nations. He noted that the CFTC plans to do more in the area of substituted

SIFMA submitted a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, "Agencies") regarding the treatment of municipal securities as High-Quality Liquid Assets ("HQLA") under the Basel III Liquidity Coverage Ratio Rule ("LCR Rule"). According to SIFMA, many investment-grade municipal securities exhibit all of the key characteristics of HQLAs specified in the LCR Rule and retain these characteristics during times of market stress. SIFMA recommended that the Agencies consider a