The CFTC has announced that it has approved an order for ICE Trade Vault, LLC, a provisionally registered swap data repository, to remove the "interest rate" asset class as an asset class for which it will accept data. The CFTC previously granted provisional registration to ICE Trade Vault as a swap data repository to accept swap data for the interest rate, credit, foreign exchange, and other commodity asset classes. Click here to view CFTC Order (links externally to CFTC website). See also: CFTC Press Release.

The SEC, in its recently issued "Fiscal Year 2012 Agency Financial Report," stated that it expects to move forward with recommendations from a staff report to consider a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for investment advisers and broker-dealers when providing personalized investment advice to retail investors about securities. The referenced staff report is the SEC Study on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers, January 2011. Barrentine Comment: While Elisse Walter, the SEC’s soon-to-be Chairman, is reportedly a longtime supporter of such a move (see recent news article on her

SIFMA submitted a letter in response to the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA") White Paper, Building a New Infrastructure for the Secondary Mortgage Market. In the letter, SIFMA expressed support for FHFA to preserve and modernize the infrastructure of the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. SIFMA argued that the FHFA should follow a phased approach to implementing its Strategic Plan, and give priority to the alignment of the operations of the Enterprises. This alignment is important to preserve and enhance the liquidity of the TBA market, according to the letter

FINRA's podcast of its November monthly compliance and news recap. See below: Notices Change of effective date of TRACE rule; Through TRACE, FINRA has started TBA transaction informations (Reg. Notice 12-48); SEC approved amendments to FINRA rules to conform to the JOBS Act (Reg. Notice 12-49); SEC approved FINRA Stop Order Rule Amendments (Reg. Notice 12-50). Resources Review of compliance with FINRA rules prohibiting trading ahead of customer orders; Review of impact of firms' operations post-Sandy; Public comments by FINRA executives. Education (links on FINRA website) New e-learning course

Leaders of several authorities with responsibility for the regulation of the OTC derivatives markets (which included the SEC, CFTC and EC, among others) met on November 28 to discuss reform and released the attached Joint Statement. The Agencies stated that "conflicting or inconsistent cross-border application of rules . . . may inhibit the execution or clearing of certain cross-border transactions or impose additional compliance burdens," and further recognized that regulatory gaps may provide the potential for regulatory arbitrage. The Joint Statement addresses issues of harmonization and