In an April 11 complaint filed in Chicago federal court, CME Group Inc. ("CME") was sued by three of its users that alleged CME sold access to order information to its high-frequency traders ("HFTs") ahead of other market participants. In regards to the suit, CME responded that the case is without merit, stating: "The suit is devoid of any facts supporting the allegations and, even worse, demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how our markets operate." The Plaintiffs allege that throughout the Class Period (2007 through April 10, 2014), CME concealed the fact that it was allowing the

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued an exemptive relief for a CPO permitting the filing of a 15-month certified annual report. The letter provides relief to the CPO of a commodity pool from the Annual Report filing and certification requirements pursuant to CFTC Rules 4.7(b)(3) ("Exemption from Certain Part 4 Requirements for Commodity Pool Operators with Respect to Offerings to Qualified Eligible Persons and for Commodity Trading Advisors with Respect to Advising Qualified Eligible Persons") and 4.22(d) ("Reporting to Pool Participants"). The DSIO

In a speech at the American Bar Association Business Law Section Spring Meeting, SEC Division of Corporate Finance Director Keith F. Higgins discussed the SEC's disclosure regime and the ways in which the Commission is trying to increase disclosure effectiveness. Director Higgins stated that the SEC's initial goal is to review specific sections of Regulation S-K and S-X to determine if the requirements can be updated to reduce the costs and burdens on companies, while also continuing to provide material information and eliminate duplicative disclosures. Director Higgins stated that the SEC is

The SEC approved FINRA's rule proposal to clarify the classification and reporting of certain securities to FINRA. The proposed rule change aims to address the appropriate classification of "hybrid" securities for trade reporting purposes. The new rule change will permit FINRA to include a capital trust security and a trust preferred security in the term "TRACE-Eligible Security." Under the approved rule change, FINRA will continue to use existing infrastructure to report the hybrid securities to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE). The implementation date will be 150 days

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA") provided comments to the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") encouraging a "more fulsome" adoption and use by the U.S. regulatory community of the Legal Entity Identifier ("LEI") to promote financial stability. In the letter, SIFMA stated that having a "uniform, global legal entity identifier will help regulators and supervisors, researchers and firms to better measure and monitor systemic risk, as well as to more effectively measure and manage counterparty exposure and improve operational efficiencies."