The CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued a no-action letter that provides relief for certain U.S. banks that are wholly owned by non-U.S. banks that are themself CFTC-registered swap dealers. The no-action letter allows a U.S. bank that is wholly owned by such a foreign entity to ignore the swap dealing activities of its foreign affiliates, or the U.S. branches of such affiliates, when determining whether such U.S. bank satisfies the de minimis exception to the swap dealer definition and registration requirements. Conditions: The letter is subject to VERY

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Todd Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management, LLC ("Diamondback"), and Anthony Chiasson, a former portfolio manager and co-founder of Level Global Investors, LP ("Level Global"), were found guilty today of conspiracy and securities fraud crimes stemming from their involvement in insider trading schemes that netted more than $72 million in illegal profits. Newman and Chiasson executed trades based on material, nonpublic information ("Inside Information") about two publicly traded

On May 24, 2012, NFA and CME issued a joint bulletin which outlined that a daily segregated, secured 30.7 and sequestered statement is required to be prepared for any day for which the markets are open which are relevant to that particular statement (customer origin). This is a reminder that for days that are U.S. Federal holidays and foreign markets are open for trading, daily secured 30.7 and sequestered statements, as applicable, are required. This means for December 25, 2012, daily secured and sequestered statements, as applicable, are required to be submitted by 12:00 noon on Wednesday

On December 17th, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth instituted settled administrative proceedings against Morgan Stanley & Co. for allegedly exerting improper influence over research analysts during the initial public offering of Facebook, Inc. in violation of a 2003 consent decree which Morgan Stanley had signed with the state. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Morgan Stanley agreed to settle the matter by paying $5 million.

The MFA submitted a comment letter to the CFTC urging it to consider adopting new guidance on the application of CFTC Rule 4.13(a)(3) for funds that invest in other collective investment vehicles, including certain securitization vehicles, ETFs, mortgage REITs, and private funds. According to the letter, the CFTC did not classify such products as commodity pools at the time when many of these vehicles were created, and at the time when funds invested in them. The MFA asserts that this new categorization makes the CFTC registration rule changes particularly problematic and potentially very