On July 28, 2014, the Smith Wesson Holding Corporation ("Smith Wesson") agreed to pay $2 million to settle civil Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). In what was described by the SEC as a "systemic pattern of making, authorizing and offering bribes while seeking to expand the company's overseas business," the company undertook actions in Pakistan, Indonesia and other emerging markets that led to charges under each of the FCPA's anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions. The SEC's charges described

FINRA issued a regulatory notice regarding the SEC's approval of FINRA Rule 2081, which is effective immediately. The new rule prohibits member firms and associated persons from conditioning or seeking to condition the settlement of a dispute with a customer on, or to otherwise compensate the customer for, the customer's agreement to consent to, or not to oppose, the firm's or associated person's request to expunge such customer dispute information from the Central Registration Depository. See: FINRA Reg. Notice 14-31. Related news: SEC Approves FINRA-Proposed Rule to Prohibit Conditioning

ICAP plc. ("ICAP"), a markets operator and provider of post-trade risk services, announced that it adopted the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks ("Principles"), stating that it will continue to build its own benchmark business based on these Principles. According to ICAP, its Information Services division ("IIS") adopted the Principles by creating an independent management structure and a segregated technical infrastructure for benchmark activities, which are independent from ICAP's market operating and broking businesses. IIS currently acts as a benchmark administrator for seven

The SEC issued a no-action letter to the firm RiverNorth regarding its reallocation of a fund's advisory fee without first obtaining the approval of all of the shareholders of the fund. The letter provides that a change in the division of fees between the adviser to a registered investment company and a sub-adviser does not require shareholder approval where the overall level of fees does not change. See: No-Action Letter.

The MFA sent letters to CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad and the other CFTC Commissioners outlining the MFA's current priorities with the CFTC. The letters reiterated points that were raised in earlier letters and in testimony before Congress. Issues addressed in the letters include: impartial access to SEFs and SEF-implementation concerns; exemption for SEF members that are registered as CTAs/CPOs from the oral and written recordkeeping requirements outlined in CFTC Rule 1.35(a) ("Records of Commodity Interest and Related Cash or Forward Transactions"); swap data reporting issues; cross-border