SEC Chair Mary Jo White delivered the keynote address at the Securities Regulation Institute, speaking about some of the "transformative" changes at the SEC in 2014, including rulemakings on the upcoming SEC agenda. Chair White outlined the new technologies that the SEC is utilizing to keep up with the financial market's evolving technology and provide market participants and stakeholders with better access to data, as well as providing faster and more useful analytics for the SEC. According to White, NEAT ("National Exam Analytics Tool") assists the SEC in systematically and quickly analyzing

The SEC issued a no-action letter stating that it will not take action against any investment adviser who is registered pursuant to Advisers Act Section 203 ("Registration of Investment Advisers") and pays to Ms. Stephanie Hibler a cash solicitation fee for the solicitation of advisory clients in accordance with Rule 206(4)‑3 ("Cash Payments for Client Solicitations"). The no-action relief applies notwithstanding an SEC administrative order that would have otherwise precluded such an investment adviser from paying the fee to Ms. Hibler. Lofchie Comment: While waivers of the disqualification

The National Futures Association ("NFA") issued an Investor Newsletter for January 2014, which highlighted "scam trends" of 2013, described recent enforcement actions and discussed the new Securities Investor Protection Corporation ("SIPC") website. According to the Newsletter, the National Consumers League ("NCL") recently issued a report on the top 10 scam trends reported in 2013, which included fake check scams, general merchandise Internet scams, advance fee loans and other fraudulent attacks on consumers. Additionally, the NCL reported "refund and recovery" fraud to be the fastest-growing

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") submitted a letter to the CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") requesting time-limited no-action relief from the trade execution requirement for swaps executed as part of package transactions in the interest rate asset class. In the letter, MFA states that it is writing in response to the CFTC's announcement of the trade execution mandate for certain interest rates swaps in connection with Javelin SEF Made-Available-to-Trade ("MAT") determination. In particular, MFA had concerns with the position taken by the CFTC regarding package transactions. MFA

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 5110 ("Corporate Financing Rule – Underwriting Terms and Agreements"). The proposed rule change expands the circumstances in which termination fees and rights of first refusal are permissible and exempts certain exchange-traded funds formed as grantor or statutory trusts from filing requirements. See: Text of Proposed Rule Change.