New SRO rules and rule proposals have been announced by the SEC. Click on the links to view the SEC's notices of each rule change and proposal. C2: Effective Immediately - Rule Change Related to Pre-Opening Information CBOE: Effective Immediately - Rule Change Related to Pre-Opening Information

The CFPB announced in the Federal Register that it is delaying the February 7, 2013 effective date of final rules published by the Bureau on February 7, and August 20, 2012 (collectively, the "2012 Final Rule"), that amend Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act ("EFTA"). The Final Rule implements statutory requirements set forth in Section 1073 of the Dodd-Frank Act regarding remittance transfers. The Bureau is delaying the effective date of the 2012 Final Rule pending the finalization of a proposal, published on December 31, 2012 ("December 2012 Proposal"), that would

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch has announced several staff changes for the Senate Finance Committee. The following individuals will be serving on the Committee in their respective positions as listed. Kimberly Brandt - Chief Oversight Counsel Bryan Hickman - Senior Counsel Jay Khosla - Policy Director on the minority staff of the Committee (in addition to serving as Chief Health Counsel). Additional senior staff on the Senate Finance Committee include: Chris Campbell, Republican Staff Director; Everett Eissenstat, Chief International Trade Counsel; Jeffrey Wrase, Chief Economist; and Mark Prater

The SEC Division of Corporation Finance provided no-action relief regarding a broker-dealer's pecuniary interest, as defined in Exchange Act Rule 16a-1(a)(2), in any "Insider Security" in certain transactions in the component securities of an certain exchange-traded funds ("ETF"). The relief would not be available to ETFs that are actively managed, ETFs with component securities that are issued by foreign private issuers or ETFs holding debt instruments. As to those ETFs within the scope of the rule, the relief permits broker-dealers to engage in a variety of transactions with respect to

The SEC charged Firas Hamdan, a Texas-based day trader, with defrauding fellow members of the Houston-area Lebanese and Druze communities in his supposed high-frequency trading program, and providing them with falsified brokerage records that drastically overstated assets and hid his massive trading losses. See: SEC Complaint, SEC Litigation Release, and SEC Press Release. See also: Hamdan's Brokerage Statements.