News Article The CFTC hopes to fully implement its biggest crackdown on commodity market speculators by early 2012, a year after the deadline set by lawmakers, it said in a filing that gave the most detailed legal argument and timeline yet for the controversial plan. In the full text of its 100-page proposal, which must overcome significant internal skepticism before it can be finalized, the CFTC also clarified an interim plan demanding much more information about the positions held by big traders in energy and metals markets, saying it would affect some 140 entities on a monthly basis. In the

FSOC The Financial Stability Oversight Council published a report on steps that should be taken to implement § 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, also known as the Volcker Rule. The section generally prohibits banking entities from engaging in proprietary trading and from investing in or sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds. Among the report's recommendations to regulatory agencies are (1) requiring banking entities to sell or wind down impermissible trading desks; (2) requiring strong compliance and supervisory programs at banks to address concerns relating to the Volcker Rule; (3)

SEC Release (Enforcement) The SEC announced settled administrative actions against BNY Mellon and its institutional order desk manager, relating to the firm's failure to meet its duty of best execution to certain customers when it executed orders at "stale or inferior prices" in favor of orders entered by certain hedge fund customers. The release alleges a scheme in which the institutional order manager would use the "validated cross window" at a "Regional Exchange" to execute "not-held" orders of certain customers in a way that deprived them of best execution and benefited the hedge fund

SEC Release As required by § 916 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC adopted rules to govern the handling of proposed rule changes submitted by self-regulatory organizations ("SROs"). The new rules are intended to formalize the process to be used by the SEC when conducting proceedings to determine whether an SRO's proposed rule change should be disapproved under § 19(b)(2) of the Exchange Act. Document Number SEC Release 34-63727 Date January 14, 2011 Cross References (links may require a Cabinet subscription) Dodd-Frank § 916 Exchange Act § 19(b) Exchange Act Rule 19b-4

CFTC Dodd-Frank Rulemaking The CFTC published its rule proposal governing position limits for derivatives that the Commission issued after voting 4-1 on Jan. 13th to release for public comment. The text of the proposed rule covers 100 pages and will appear in the Federal Register within the next two weeks. Document Number RIN 3038-AD15 and 3038-AD16 Date January 13, 2011 Cross References (links may require a Cabinet subscription) Dodd-Frank Act, Title VII, Secs, 737, 17 CFT Parts 1, 150, and 151.