A report on the FRBNY website asserts that restrictions on short sales have a negative impact on the prices of the securities in which short sales are restricted. For a full discussion of the regulations applicable to short selling, see Lofchie's Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation, Trading Chapter. View report here (links externally to NY Fed website).

CME Clearing Europe has announced that it has extended the range of eligible collateral types to include gold bullion in connection with the clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. [Lofchie Comment: One of the criticisms made of swaps regulation under Dodd-Frank is that it simultaneously (i) increases the requirements that swaps parties post collateral, and (ii) at least in the United States, substantially decreases what firms will be able to post as collateral, potentially raising materially the costs of acceptable collateral. Accordingly, it will be interesting to see if there are

The Board of Directors of National Futures Association (NFA) approved amendments to NFA Financial Requirements that will require each futures commission merchant (FCM) to provide its Designated Self-Regulatory Organization (DSRO) with view-only access via the Internet to account information for each of the FCM's customer segregated fund account(s) maintained and held at a bank or trust company. Under this rule, the relevant DSRO would be able to check any customer segregated and secured bank account balance maintained for any FCM without asking the FCM or the bank holding the assets for

The NASAA requested the SEC to go slowly in drafting a rule to lift the ban on companies advertising to investors before public offerings. The law included a 90-day deadline for the SEC to implement the rule lifting the ban. Because it missed the deadline, the SEC is reported to be considering adopting an interim resolution that would immediately lift the advertising ban. However, NASAA has strongly urged the SEC to follow its normal course of publishing the proposed rule for public comment before it becomes effective. In this regard, NASAA's letter takes it as a given that the JOBS Act will

FINRA has implemented new procedures regarding application of the late disclosure fee under Section 4(h) of Schedule A to the FINRA By-Laws to the reporting of judgment/lien events on Forms U4. Under the new procedures, FINRA is requesting that member firms provide the date the registered person learned of the judgment/lien on Form U4 when reporting such events and will assess the late disclosure fee based on that date. Effective Date: August 13, 2012 View notice in full here(links externally to FINRA website).