SIFMA submitted a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White in response to her recent statement on the SEC's review of Securities Information Processors ("SIPs") in light of the August 22, 2013 SIP outage that led to a halt in the trading of NASDAQ-listed securities. According to the SIFMA, the August 22 events highlighted the "critical nature of the SIPs in maintaining fair and orderly markets," and emphasized "the need for regulators and market participants to coordinate and collaborate to make sure the markets are operationally resilient and robust." SIFMA commended the SEC's initiative in

The National Futures Association ("NFA") has published guidance on the annual affirmation requirement for entities that are currently operating under an exemption or exclusion from CPO or CTA registration. The guidance states that the CFTC requires any person that claims an exemption or exclusion from CPO registration under CFTC Rule 4.5 ("Exclusion for Certain Otherwise Regulated Persons from the Definition of the Term 'Commodity Pool Operator'") or Rule 4.13 ("Exemption from Registration as a Commodity Pool Operator"), or an exemption from CTA registration under Rule 4.14(a)(8) ("Exemption

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") issued a final rule amending Part 234 or Regulation HH ("Designated Financial Market Utilities") of the FRB's regulations. The final rule sets out the conditions and requirements for a Federal Reserve Bank to open and maintain accounts for, and provide financial services to, financial market utilities ("FMUs") designated as systemically important by the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC"). Additionally, the rule authorizes a Federal Reserve Bank to pay interest on the balances maintained by a designated FMU. The rule

FINRA has ordered a broker-dealer firm to pay restitution to 84 customers for sales of unsuitable leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") and for excessive mutual fund switches. FINRA found that the broker-dealer failed to establish and maintain a reasonable supervisory system and instead supervised leveraged and inverse ETFs ("Non-Traditional ETFs") in the same manner that it supervised traditional ETFs. In addition to not providing adequate training regarding ETFs, the firm allowed its registered representatives to recommend these complex ETFs without performing reasonable

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") has issued the Guidance on Managing Outsourcing Risk to remind financial institutions supervised by the FRB to exercise appropriate risk management and oversight when using service providers. According to the guidance, a "service provider" is defined as any organization or entity, such as a consultant, that enters into a contractual relationship with a financial institution to provide business functions or activities, such as accounting, auditing, loan review, compliance, or risk management. The guidance describes factors that