The CFTC charged a former risk management consultant and associated person of a registered futures commission merchant and provisionally registered swap dealer with fraud and unauthorized trading. The CFTC's civil complaint alleged that, on behalf of the firm, the former consultant intentionally entered into thirty bilateral swap transactions with a customer but without the customer's consent. According to the CFTC, the former consultant engaged in these unauthorized swap transactions in order to conceal trading losses from his customers and the firm. See: CFTC Complaint; CFTC Press Release.

The SEC's adoption of revisions to Regulation AB and other rules governing the offering process, disclosure and reporting for asset-backed securities ("ABS") was published in the Federal Register. The final rules require that, with some exceptions, prospectuses for public offerings under the Securities Act, and ongoing reports under the Exchange Act, of ABS backed by real estate assets, auto-related assets or debt securities, contain specified asset-level information about each of the assets in the pool. Additionally, the SEC adopted (i) rules to revise filing deadlines for ABS offerings to

The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") and the Association of Institutional Investors submitted a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department in response to the Financial Stability Oversight Council's ("FSOC") conference on asset management. The letter provided a summary of statements by academic and industry experts regarding asset management and its potential impact on the U.S. financial system. The letter noted, among other things, the following three key themes: the ways in which fundamental attributes of the asset management business significantly reduce the potential for it to

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to delay the implementation date of the amendments to trade reporting rules relating to the OTC Reporting Facility ("ORF"), the Alternative Display Facility ("ADF") and the Trade Reporting Facilities ("TRFs") that were approved in March. See 79 FR 12558. In a letter dated August 8, 2014, the Financial Information Forum requested a delay of migration of the ORF to FINRA's multi-product platform ("MPP") and the implementation of the amendments to the trade reporting rules, stating that firms needed additional time to complete and test the system's

FINRA released the second in a five-part series of podcasts about FINRA's new Consolidated Supervision Rules. This podcast further addresses the main Supervision Rule, FINRA Rule 3110, and explains the requirements for supervisory procedures for reviewing correspondence, communications and complaints. In the podcast, FINRA explains that firms must have supervisory procedures to review incoming and outgoing written correspondence, as well as internal communications relating to their investment banking or securities business, including all electronic communications. According to FINRA, this