FINRA Chairman and CEO Richard Ketchum delivered a speech in which he discussed how regulators and consumer advocates can work together to ensure that consumers are making sound financial decisions. Mr. Ketchum also discussed concerns as to a number of types of financial products, including structured products, closed-end funds and privately placed securities sold by issuers, about which there is limited available information. Mr. Ketchum expressed his support for a uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisers, and suggested that broker-dealer regulation and investment

The SEC announced that, on March 12, 2013, a federal court in New York entered final judgment against Frederick J. O'Meally, the sole remaining defendant in a fraud action filed by the Commission on August 28, 2006. The SEC alleged that he used deceptive practices to evade blocks by mutual fund companies on his market timing trading. Click here to learn more (links externally to SEC website).

The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority, the successor bodies to the FSA which will take charge of UK financial services regulation as of April 1, 2013, have published a guide to their new Handbooks. The Handbooks will contain the legislative and other provisions made under powers given to the two new bodies by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended, in particular, by the Financial Services Act 2012. Most of the provisions currently contained in the FSA Handbook will be incorporated into the FCA Handbook, the PRA Handbook or both.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler delivered remarks before the Futures Industry Association's (FIA) 38th Annual International Futures Industry Conference discussing the progress of the swaps market since last year. Main topics discussed include: Pre-trade transparency; Further implementation of swaps market reform; Customer protection; Regarding LIBOR, Chairman Gensler highlighted two critical questions: (i) what best alternatives anchored in real transactions are there to LIBOR, Euribor and other similar benchmarks?; (ii) what are the mechanisms and protocols for the financial system and market

Carl W. Hoecker introduced himself as the newly appointed Inspector General of the SEC in a written testimony before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, and U.S. House of Representatives. Topics discussed in his testimony included: the role of the OIG; SEC OIG Audits, including audits of rulemaking cost-benefit analyses; SEC OIG Investigations. View testimony in full here (links externally to SEC website).