The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board ("MSRB") and the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas will webcast their March 7, 2013 education and outreach event. The webcast (held in Dallas, Texas) will expand accessibility to the event for all industry professionals who wish to learn about the MSRB's current priorities and its rulemaking efforts for municipal advisors and dealers. The program will also include updates on the MSRB's implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act. View Press Release in full here (links externally to MSRB website).

A new NASDAQ OMX BX rule amendment has been announced by the SEC. Click on the link to view the SEC's notice of the rule change. NASDAQ OMX BX: Effective Immediately - Rule Change Relating to Routing Fees to C2 (See also: Exhibit 5)

The SEC announced that it will hold a roundtable on April 16 to discuss potential ways to improve the transparency and efficiency of fixed income markets. The roundtable will focus on the corporate bond market and the municipal securities market, which was the subject of a July 2012 SEC report. The 2012 Report on the munis market made a variety of recommendations to improve pre-trade and post-trade price transparency, and to strengthen brokers' existing obligations to provide investors with best execution and fair pricing. The roundtable will provide a forum for in-depth discussion of these

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an investor bulletin on insider transactions and Forms 3,4, and 5. Lofchie Comment: This is interesting. This is not a bulletin or guide on how to file the forms. Rather, it is a soft caution to investors that they may want to research selling by insiders before buying stock in a company. View Alert in full here (links externally to SEC website).

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition Forestry, and addressed the CFTC's regulation of the swaps and futures markets. According to Chairman Gensler, "the public is benefiting." Chairman Gensler indicated that the CFTC had adopted 80% of its required rules, though he did not discuss how many had come into force. He said, "As it is sometimes the case with human nature, the agency receives many inquiries as compliance deadlines approach." Chairman Gensler did not indicate in his speech that there were any material problems implementing what he