CFTC's Office of General Counsel ("OGC") supplied the attached FAQ in response to questions from market participants and other interested parties regarding the classification of certain physical commercial agreements for the supply and consumption of energy that contain both a variable cost and a fixed cost component. According to the CFTC, market participants were concerned that every agreement with a variable cost component would be regulated as a commodity option. But not to worry: In the view of the CFTC staff (which may not reflect the view of the CFTC), if (1) a facility usage agreement

A recently issued report on the impact of high-frequency trading on market integrity, which was commissioned by the Bank of England and authored by Alex Frino and Andrew Lepone, found no link between high-frequency trading ("HFT"), or at least the proxy used by the authors to measure HFT, and #8220;ticking#8221; and #8220;end-of-day price dislocations#8221; - the proxies used by the report to measure market manipulation. The report examined five years of trading data on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris during the period from 2006 to 2011. Specifically, while the report found a

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing to discuss Basel III and the impact which the federal banking agencies' proposed regulatory capital rules will have on the U.S. financial system. The Committee heard testimony from Michael Gibson, a Director of the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation at the Federal Reserve; John Lyons, Chief National Bank Examiner at the OCC; and George French, Deputy Director of Policy of the Division of Risk Management Supervision at the FDIC. Gibson's testimony reviewed the proposed capital changes, the Fed's analysis of

The SEC issued an order providing regulatory relief to publicly traded companies, investment companies, accountants, transfer agents, and others affected by Hurricane Sandy. To address compliance issues caused by Sandy, the order conditionally exempts affected persons from the requirements of the federal securities laws with regard to: Exchange Act filing requirements for the period from October 29, 2012, to November 20, 2012, provided that the filer discloses the reasons why, in good faith, it cannot file on a timely basis; Proxy and information statement delivery requirements for companies

ICE Futures U.S. published a monthly reminder regarding spot month position limit and accountability dates for energy futures and options contracts. View Notice in full here (links externally to ICE website).