FINRA announced fines against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC ("Morgan Stanley") for supervisory failures related to the solicitation of retail customers to invest in IPOs. According to the FINRA Action, from February 16, 2012, to May 1, 2013, Morgan Stanley sold shares to retail customers in 83 IPOs without having adequate procedures and training to ensure that its sales staff distinguished between "indications of interest" (which must be confirmed after the registration statement becomes effective) and "conditional offers" in its solicitations of potential investors. FINRA found that Morgan

FINRA issued an election notice indicating that the annual meeting of FINRA firms to elect one Small Firm Governor and one Large Firm Governor to the FINRA Board of Governors will take place on August 6, 2014. Petitions for candidacy are due on June 20, 2014. See: FINRA Election Notice.

Last weekend, as the security situation in Ukraine continued to deteriorate, Canada announced the imposition of targeted economic sanctions against additional Russian entities. The list of 16 companies is nearly identical to that of entities designated by the United States on April 28, consisting of firms linked to previously designated Russian oligarchs Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, Yuri Kovalchuk and Gennady Timchenko. (Canada has not designated Transoil, a Russia-based freight operator named by the United States last week due to its links to Timchenko. Canada imposed sanctions on a number of

In a development to the lawsuit challenging the CFTC's Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (the "Cross-Border Rule"), the CFTC submitted a consolidated reply in support of its cross-motion for summary judgment and in opposition to the ISDA, SIFMA and the Institute of International Bankers' (together, the "Associations") motion for summary judgment. In its consolidated reply, the CFTC stated that the Associations' case "rests entirely on the mistaken premise that Congress required the CFTC to determine the cross-border application of

The CFTC announced the establishment of the Market Risk Advisory Committee ("MRAC"). The MRAC's duties include: advising the CFTC on issues involving clearinghouses, exchanges, intermediaries, market-makers and end users regarding systemic issues that threaten the stability of the derivatives markets and other financial markets; identifying and analyzing the implications of an evolving market structure and the movement of risk across clearinghouses, intermediaries, market-makers and end users; monitoring developments in the structure of the derivatives markets for their effect on systemic