The SEC issued a comprehensive report describing the business and legal structure of the municipal securities markets, with extensive recommendations to help improve the structure of the market and enhance the disclosures provided to investors. In this report, the SEC recommends potential legislation, and identifies potential rulemaking by the SEC or the MSRB. In addition, the report discusses several disclosure issues, including: the timing and content of financial information; disclosures relating to pension and other post-employment benefit plans that create financial risks to issuers

The sanctioned individual was involved with, among other things, "selling away" violations. In addition, the individual was charged with trying to conceal what were essentially brokerage-type services under the rubric of their being "consulting" services as to hide the fact that they were services that should have been performed by an SEC-registered broker-dealer. Cross Reference(s): Exchange Act Sections 15(b) and 21C; Investment Company Act Section 9(c). For a general description of the activities requiring broker-dealer registration, see Lofchie's Guide to Broker-Dealers, Chapter 2. View

In Commissioner Scott O'Malia's opening statement before the Technology Advisory Committee, he argued that the reforms currently under consideration fail to close the existing regulatory gap that allows firms to self-report the status, balance and location of the customer funds. O'Malia went on to note that the industry must develop a fully automated technology solution that can verify customer balances held by the FCM, custodial banks and the clearing house. [SL Comment: As an ardent opponent of Dodd-Frank, I note again the irony that FCMs were put forward as a better alternative to tri-party

The FDIC released a list of 48 orders of administrative enforcement actions taken against banks and individuals in June. Among those orders were civil money penalties against five banks for violations of the Flood Disaster Protection Act, including failure to obtain flood insurance on loans secured by property located in flood hazard areas; a civil money penalty for violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, where the bank created and operated a company used as a conduit for paying unlawful mortgage loan referral fees; and several consent orders arising from charges of unsafe and

The CFTC is adopting regulations to establish a schedule to phase in compliance with the clearing requirement under new section 2(h)(1)(A) of the Commodity Exchange Act, enacted under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. This is the Federal Register version of the proposal that we described on July 24. To see the description that we published on July 24, link here. Effective Date: September 28, 2012. Note that this is not the date on which central clearing is required. Rather, according to the rule, effective as of such date, a swap between two dealers would be required to be cleared not later