SEC Release No. LR-22008 June 21, 2011 The SEC announced a settled civil action against a broker-dealer, alleging that the firm misled investors into purchasing a synthetic collateralized debt obligation without informing them that a hedge fund helped select the assets in the CDO portfolio and had a short position in a significant amount of the assets. The broker-dealer agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle the charges. Cross References SEC Press Release No. 2011-131 Securities Act § 17(a)(2)-(3)

SEC Release No. LR-22031 July 7, 2011 The SEC announced a settled civil action against a broker-dealer, alleging that the firm engaged in improper conduct relating to municipal bond reinvestment transactions. Among other things, the SEC action alleges that the firm obtained information from bidding agents about competing bids for the reinvestment contracts and also set up in advance to win auctions through a rigged bidding process. The firm agreed to pay $51.2 million to settle the SEC charges, as well as another $177 million to settle parallel actions brought other federal and state

FINRA RN 11-30 June 27, 2011 FINRA announced that it is delaying the effective date, to October 3, 2011, for the treatment of non-margin eligible equity securities announced in FINRA Regulatory Notice 11-16. In addition, FINRA revised a provision requiring firms to cancel certain day-trade transactions. Instead, firms will be required to restrict the amount of margin extended to such customers who fail to meet day-trade calls on non-margin eligible equity securities. Cross References FINRA RN 11-16 FINRA Rule 4210 Regulation T

FINRA RN 11-29 June 17, 2011 FINRA published an FAQ to provide guidance to firms regarding the implementation of its new Rule 5131, governing the allocation and distribution of new issues. In particular, the guidance discusses Rule 5131(b), which prohibits "spinning," and Rule 5131(d)(4), which prohibits firms from accepting market orders for the purchase of shares in a new issue in the secondary market prior to beginning of trading in the new shares. Cross References FINRA Rule 5131 FINRA RN 10-60 (announcing approval of Rule 5131) SR-NASD-2003-140 (rulemaking to approve Rule 5131)

FINRA RN 11-28 June 16, 2011 FINRA published a request for comment on a proposal to amend Schedule A of its By-Laws to implement an "Accounting Support Fee" to fund the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The proposal is in response to Section 978 of Dodd-Frank, which amended Section 19(g) of the Securities Act to give the SEC the authority to require national securities associations to establish an accounting support fee to fund the GASB. Comments on the proposal are due by August 1, 2011. Cross References Dodd-Frank § 978 Securities Act § 19(g)