The FINRA Investor Education Foundation will participate in a series of Investor Fraud Summits sponsored by the DOJ and the SEC. These events will feature U.S. Attorneys, as well as senior DOJ, SEC, CFTC, and FBI officials. The FINRA Foundation will be participating in three of these events this month: Northeast Region Investor Fraud Summit on October 1 at University of Connecticut - Stamford Campus Rocky Mountain Region Investor Fraud Summit on October 10 at University of Colorado, Denver Campus Southeastern Regional Investor Fraud Summit on October 12 at Miami Dade College FINRA notes that

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined and imposed a 5-year ban on former oil futures broker, Steven Noel Perkins, for market abuse on the grounds that he is not a fit and proper person, noting in paragraph 66 that "Mr Perkins poses an extreme risk to the market when drunk." Mr Perkins's actions under the influence were found to have created a temporary upward spike in the price of Brent Oil. View Final Notice here (links externally to FSA website). See also: FSA Press Release.

NFA Financial Requirements Section 16 (effective September 1, 2012) requires FCMs to submit certain financial-related information to the NFA on a regular (monthly, semi-monthly or daily) basis. Financial Requirements Section 16 also requires FCMs that hold customer segregated and secured amount funds to report additional information, which may not be included in the firm's regular filings. The purpose of this notice is to provide instructions on how to file this additional information. The NFA further reminds FCMs that any information filed after its due date must be accompanied by a fee of $1

The MFA submitted a comment letter to the Working Group on Margining Requirements (WGMR) of the Basel Committee and the Board of IOSCO in response to the Basel-IOSCO Consultative Document on Margin Requirements for Non-Centrally-Cleared Derivatives. In the letter, the MFA urged the WGMR to take into consideration the importance of certain non-cleared derivatives as customized risk management tools, and set forth positions and recommendations on the following issues: Initial margin; Portfolio margining; Margin thresholds; IM schedule; and Ongoing review of requirements. View comment letter here

CFTC Chairman Gensler made a speech praising U.S. and U.K. regulators for making significant progress on a coordinated international approach to swaps market reform generally (with particular attention to the clearing requirement, transparency, the margin requirement for uncleared swaps, and cross-border application of swaps market reform). Chairman Gensler asserted that it is best to have consistent reforms globally that promote transparency and lowering risk to the swaps market. Gensler goes on to state that the American approach to reform is to "better protect the American public from risk