The SEC charged a California-based lawyer for fraudulently producing baseless legal opinion letters for penny stocks through his website without doing the required due diligence by researching and evaluating the individual stock offerings. These opinion letters contained false and misleading statements, and facilitated the sale of securities in violation of the registration sections of the federal securities laws. The lawyer is being charged with violating Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the Securities Act, as well as Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5of the Exchange Act. View Complaint in full

The CFTC issued a public letter to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ("CME") in which it confirmed that CME Rule 1001, which requires that creation and continuation data for swaps cleared by the CME, as clearing organization, shall be reported to the CME, as swap data repository. In a related statement, the CFTC concluded that this CME Rule is not inconsistent with the CEA, specifically CEA Sections 2(a)(13)(G), 5band 21, or with the CFTC rules. The CFTC statement concludes that the Part 45 rules (Swap Data Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements) do not preclude CME from reporting the

Effective immediately, FINRA will waive the requisite continuing membership application ("CMA") fee where FINRA determines that a CMA is proposing insignificant changes that do not require substantial staff review. Examples of changes that may qualify for a CMA fee waiver are described in the attached regulatory notice. Also effective immediately, FINRA will refund the application fee (less a $500 processing fee) if an applicant withdraws a new membership application ("NMA") or CMA within 30 days after filing the application with FINRA. See: Regulatory Notice 13-11.

On April 8, 2013, Phase I of the joint industry Regulation NMS Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility will be implemented. Regulatory Notice 13-12 provides a brief overview of the plan and recent amendments to FINRA rules to facilitate implementation, operation and member firm compliance with the plan. The amended rule text is available in the attached regulatory notice. See: Regulatory Notice 13-12. See also: FINRA's FAQ for additional guidance.For a general discussion, see Lofchie's Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation: Trading Chapter.

SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher recently spoke at the Gulf Cooperation Council Regulators' Summit in Qatar. Gallagher focused his remarks on the globalization of financial markets and the resulting regulatory challenges. Specifically, the speech acknowledged that requiring market participants to comply with the regulatory requirements of multiple jurisdictions can be costly, confusing, and cumbersome. Gallagher asserted that any attempt at cross-border regulatory "harmonization" would be futile and impractical; he favors instead an approach of voluntary regulatory deference. Under this