The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin regarding high-yield corporate bonds. According to the Bulletin, a high-yield corporate bond is a type of corporate bond that offers a higher rate of interest because of its higher risk of default. High-yield bond issuers are often companies characterized as highly leveraged or which are experiencing financial difficulties. Similarly, smaller or emerging companies may also issue high-yield bonds to offset unproven operating histories. High-yield corporate bonds are very risky. Investors considering purchasing a

The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin regarding corporate bonds. A corporate bond, which makes up one of the largest components of the U.S. bond market, is a debt obligation in which the investors purchasing the bond are lending money to the company issuing the bond. In return, the company makes a legal commitment to pay interest on the principal and to return the principle when the bond comes due, or matures. Bonds are classified according to their maturity, or the date the company has to pay back the principle to investors. Maturities can be short

A broad-based coalition of organizations submitted a letter to SEC Chairman White, urging the SEC to establish a uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisers that is at least as strong as the existing standard for investment advisers and asserted vigorous opposition to any rule that would weaken investor protections. The letter outlines the group's concerns that the SEC's March Request for Information ("RFI") signals that the SEC may be backing away from requiring a fiduciary standard for broker-dealers that is "no less stringent" than the one under which registered

FINRA released a podcast on June 3rd summarizing the notices, news, and education information issued by FINRA for May 2013.The notice summary included the SEC approving amendment for reporting over-the-counter transactions in equities securities and FINRA's designation of an additional index that firms can use to calculate conventional option position limits and their implementation dates. The news summary included LPL Financial's being fined $7.5 million by FINRA for systemic e-mail failures and making misstatements to FINRA, along with FINRA's new video series called "A Few Minutes with

On June 5, 2013, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued an Interim Rule under Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act (commonly known as the "Lincoln Amendment"). The Lincoln Amendment generally restricts certain swaps dealing activities by banking institutions that have access to Federal Reserve advances or that are FDIC-insured, albeit with some limited exceptions that were generally available only to "insured depository institutions", which phrase arguably did not encompass many U.S. branches of non-U.S. banks. The Interim Rule deems uninsured U.S. branches of foreign banks