The staff of the Division of Clearing and Risk issued an interpretation regarding CFTC Rules Part 22, under which Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations must legally segregate each Cleared Swaps Customer's collateral, but are permitted operationally to commingle the collateral of their Cleared Swaps Customers. The interpretation provides clarification regarding operational issues arising during preparation for the implementation of Part 22. Topics include: Definitions of Cleared Swaps Customer Collateral Limitations on the Use of Cleared Swaps Customer Collateral

FINRA and the other U.S. members of the Intermarket Surveillance Group (ISG members) have extended the effective date for compliance with certain new data elements for Electronic Blue Sheets (EBS) identified in Regulatory Notice 12-36 to May 1, 2013. View FINRA Regulatory Notice 12-47 in full here (links externally to FINRA website). See also: Press Release.

The 2013 Renewal Program begins on November 12, 2012, when FINRA makes the online Preliminary Renewal Statements available to all firms on Web CRD/IARD. View FINRA Regulatory Notice 12-46 in full here (links externally to FINRA website). See also: Press Release.

According to the press release, the staff is investigating whether the IA's compliance and security policies and procedures were reasonably designed to protect against recent instances of attempted and actual theft of client assets. One such incident involved an attempt by an apparent hacker to cause the IA to wire client funds to an outside account. Lofchie Comment: You can't really tell what's going on from the SEC release, but I did think it was interesting that the adviser was faulted for having insufficient protections against a hacker (though the SEC release made this seem to be more of

ICE Futures released the following FAQ on Block Trading (Rule 4.07). View FAQ in full here (links to PDF).