The CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued a no-action letter to mortgage real estate investment trusts (mREITs). The letter states that, although mREITs are within the definition of a commodity pool, the DSIO will not recommend that the CFTC take enforcement action against the operators of mREITs for failure to register as CPOs, provided that the mREIT satisfies certain criteria as described below: Limits the initial margin and premiums required to establish its commodity interest positions to no more than 5 percent of the fair market value of the mREIT's

The SEC announced charges against eight former members of the boards of directors overseeing five Memphis, Tennessee-based mutual funds for violating their asset pricing responsibilities under the Federal securities laws. According to the attached order, the funds, which were invested in some securities backed by subprime mortgages, fraudulently overstated the value of their securities as the housing market was on the brink of financial crisis in 2007. The order further states that the directors' failure to fulfill their fair-value-related obligations was "particularly inexcusable" given that

The CFTC announced that it is accepting public comment on an amended request from the CME for approval of a rule (Rule 1001) submitted pursuant to CFTC Rule 40.5. Comments Due: January 7, 2013. See: CFTC Press Release; Submit comments online here. Related News Story: CFTC Staff Withdraws Elements of the FAQ on Reporting of Cleared Swaps; Seeks Public Comment on CME Rule 1001 (with Lofchie Comment).

The CFTC had previously issued no-action letter 12-14 as to limited types of securitization vehicles. (Link here to the related news item, which describes the prior letter and links to it.) The CFTC has now issued this related no-action letter (i) expanding the scope of the securitization vehicles that are not considered to be commodity pools (and thus whose managers by definition would not be commodity pool operators required to register as such); (ii) providing conditional no-action relief to vehicles that last issued securities before October 12, 2012; and (iii) extending the registration

FINRA has announced for the benefit of firms that staff of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets is granting an optional one-day extension (around the December 2012 month-end holidays) to firms for making the deposit of amounts required to be reserved pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3 (Customer Protection--Reserves and Custody of Securities). These reserved amounts are based on the Customer and PAIB reserve formula computations prescribed by Rule 15c3-3(e)(3) and computed as of Friday, December 21 and Friday, December 28, 2012. The required deposit dates would be pushed back from a