The SEC announced an expected award of more than $30 million to a whistleblower who provided the SEC with key original information that led to a successful enforcement action. The award will be the largest made by the SEC's whistleblower program to date, and the fourth award to a whistleblower living in a foreign country. Bondi Comment: The size of the award provided under the SEC whistleblower bounty program may be a game changer. Prior to today, the awards have been significant, but relatively modest. Undoubtedly, today's bounty will spark "whistleblowers" – some with legitimate information

Multiple trade associations, including SIFMA, the American Bankers Associations, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Credit Union National Association (collectively, the "Associations"), submitted a joint letter to Congress, urging support for recently introduced bipartisan legislation that includes technical corrections to Dodd-Frank ( H.R. 5461). According to the Associations, the ongoing implementation of Dodd-Frank "has revealed unintended consequences that have adversely impacted job creation and economic growth." The Associations stated they believe that H.R. 5461, which contains

The CME's Business Conduct Committee issued disciplinary actions against a number of individual and institutional traders for various infractions of its rules, including those relating to supervision regarding the conduct of its employees. Two of the actions involved FCMs and are summarized below. In CBOT 11-8056-BC, the CME imposed a fine of $65,000 against a member firm for violating its wash trade Rule 534. The firm executed numerous transactions in multiple Micro FX futures contract markets and the S&P 500 Select Sector Index futures product suite, wherein orders for the trading groups'

The SEC charged an individual with facilitating an insider trading scheme that involved the passing of illegal tips via napkins and Post-it Notes at Grand Central Terminal. According to the complaint, the middleman would meet the stockbroker in Grand Central, where the middleman would indicate which stock was to be traded on a Post-it Note or napkin and then chew up and eat the "communication." Lofchie Comment : Post-it Notes are actually a well-studied item in the history of business, as they were developed by a 3M employee who thought that the low stick adhesive used on their back was quite

ICE Clear Credit issued a notice informing CDS Clearing Participants of its implementation schedule for the 2014 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions. The ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions are an updated and revised version (from 2013) that contain basic terms used in documentation of most credit derivatives transactions. The schedule for implementing the definitions is as follows: Monday, September 22, 2014 Non-Protocol single names will be clearing-eligible under 2003 and 2014 Definitions; All indices and Protocol single names will be clearing eligible under 2003 Definitions only. Monday