Her Majesty's Treasury is consulting on a number of proposals aimed at assisting authorities with resolving the failure of non-bank financial institutions. The types of institutions envisaged in the proposals include investment firms, central counterparties, and insurance companies, as well as other financial infrastructure providers such as payment systems. The proposals are intended to complement the government's ongoing work on the reform of the UK banking system. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by September 24, 2012. [SL Comment: The discussion is of granting the UK

The purpose of this Election Notice is to announce an upcoming National Adjudicatory Council (NAC) election for a Small Firm NAC Member. Eligible individuals may petition to have their name included on the Small Firm NAC Member ballot using the procedure laid out in this notice. View notice in full here(links externally to FINRA website).

Chairman Schapiro noted that although the Knight Capital trading mishap is the type of event that can raise concerns for investors about our nation's equity markets, she believes that several of the measures the SEC instituted following the Flash Crash helped to limit its impact. "Recently-adopted circuit breakers halted trading on individual stocks that experienced significant price fluctuations, and clearly defined rules guided the exchanges in determining which trades could be broken giving the marketplace certainty." [SL Comment: In fact, many of the routine SRO rule "changes" of late

The SEC approved amendments to FINRA Rule 6433 (Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities) to simplify the existing tier structure, facilitate the display of customer limit orders pursuant to FINRA Rule 6460 (Display of Customer Limit Orders), and expand the scope of the rule to encompass quotations displayed by non-market makers. FINRA will implement the new quotation sizes as a one-year pilot beginning on November 5, 2012, and ending on October 31, 2013, unless extended or made permanent. Cross Reference(s): FINRA Rules 6433and 6460; SEC Release 34-67208, 77 FR 37458

The Funding for Lending Scheme launched by the Bank of England and Her Majesty's Treasury last month is now open for drawings. The scheme is intended to encourage lending to consumers and businesses, and will allow banks and building societies to borrow UK Treasury Bills from the Bank of England at favourable rates for up to four years. View press notice in full here (links externally to HM Treasury website).