The CFTC granted a limited-purpose swap dealer ("SD") designation to State Street Bank and Trust Company ("SSBT") with respect to its activities in foreign exchange products that are swaps ("FX Products"). The CFTC explained that "limited-purpose designations" designates a person as an SD for one type, class, or category of swap or activities without the person being considered an SD for other types, classes, categories or activities. In the present case, SSBT is given relief with respect to its activities in interest rate swaps. This is the second time the CFTC granted this designation (see

The CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk ("DCR") issued time-limited no-action relief to the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Clearing Limited ("SGX-DC"), stating that it will not recommend enforcement action against SGX-DC's clearing members for failing to comply with CEA Section 4d(f)(1) ("Dealing by Unregistered Futures Commission Merchants or Introducing Brokers Prohibited; Duties in Handling Customer Receipts; Rules to Avoid Duplicative Regulations") in light of the fact that no CFTC-registered FCMs are members of the relevant clearing corporations. The relief is subject to specified

The CFTC has approved, with Commissioner O'Malia dissenting, a series of determinations that would permit "substituted compliance" with the CFTC swaps regulatory regime (i) by dealers located in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan and Switzerland (as to entity-level requirements) and (ii) by dealers located in the European Union and Japan (as to certain transaction-level requirements). "Substituted compliance" describes the circumstances where the CFTC would permit non-U.S. swap dealers to comply with regulations in their home jurisdictions as a substitute for compliance

The SEC has announced fraud charges against three brokerage subsidiaries, and two former employees, of a global trading services provider that caused many institutional clients to pay higher amounts than disclosed for the execution of trading orders. In a parallel action, the Department of Justice also announced criminal charges against the brokerage subsidiaries and two former employees. The SEC order alleged that the brokerage firms routinely routed orders, including orders for U.S. equities, to an offshore affiliate in Bermuda that executed them on a riskless basis and opportunistically

The SEC has charged a senior portfolio manager at a large tech firm and his friend and business partner with insider trading ahead of company announcements. See: SEC Complaint; Press Release.