FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to delay the operative date of FINRA Rule 6121.02 ("Market-wide Circuit Breakers in NMS Stocks"), which reflects changes to the methodology for triggering market-wide circuit breakers for NMS stocks. FINRA is delaying the operative date from February 4, 2013 until April 8, 2013 to correspond to the initial date of operations for the Regulation NMS Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility. See: Text of Proposed Rule Change (links externally to FINRA website).

A coalition of four trade associations (American Petroleum Institute, Independent Petroleum Association of America, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Foreign Trade Council) has submitted a Reply Brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of its petition for review of SEC Rule 13q-1, which requires resource extraction issuers to annually disclose payments made to a foreign government in connection with the issuer's commercial development of oil, natural gas or minerals. The rule, known as the SEC's "extraction rule," was adopted on August 22, 2012 by a 2-1 vote. The

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program ("SIGTARP") issued a report discussing the Treasury's 2012 executive compensation decisions for the senior employees of corporations within the scope of the rule. SIGTARP found that the Treasury failed to manage pay at such corporations adequately. Even though the Treasury-created Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation ("OSM") set pay guidelines, SIGTARP asserted that the Treasury lacked the robust criteria, policies, and procedures to ensure those guidelines were met. SIGTARP recommends

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry, urged the nation’s chief financial regulators to implement the Dodd-Frank Act. Chairwoman Stabenow stated that the recent failures of firms like Peregrine Financial Group and MF Global, as well as trading losses at JP Morgan and the ongoing LIBOR scandal, all underscore the need to implement the bill, which was passed by Congress more than two years ago. CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and SEC Director of the Division of Trading and Market, Robert Cook, testified at hearing. Lofchie Comment

The SEC announced that it has named Carl W. Hoecker as its Inspector General. Click here to learn more (links externally to SEC's website).