FIF featured the following spotlight presentations this past week:

• FIF Front Office Committee Spotlight on OTCBB (Monday, November 30). Chris Bok of OTC Markets discussed FINRA’s proposal to retire the OTCBB and enhance oversight of OTC equity markets.
• FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs (Thursday, December 3). FIF conducted a call for Back Office Committee members that focused on the recent SEC no-action letter relating to fully paid lending (FPL) programs (programs in which broker-dealers borrow fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers). Nihal Patel from the Cadwalader law firm provided background on the rule proposal.

FIF will feature the following spotlight presentations on upcoming Committee and Working Group calls:

• Back Office Committee Spotlight on DTCC Project ION. On Tuesday December 8th at 11am ET, John Abel from DTCC will discuss DTCC's Project ION on FIF's monthly Back Office Committee meeting. 
• Tax Information Reporting Working Group Spotlight. On December 16th at 11am ET, our co-chairs from Refinitiv and guest speakers from Ernst & Young will present on the current state of withholding for broker-dealers and provide an overview on the current state reporting and filing practices for broker-dealers. 
• Cybersecurity Working Group Spotlight. On Tuesday December 15th at 11am ET, Al Berg from Endava will discuss the wide variety of tools and techniques attackers have at their disposal today. In the presentation, you will gain insight from real life incidents targeting the financial and government sectors. Al will dive into what techniques have paid off for the attackers and what defensive strategies defenders can deploy to get the most bang for their security buck.

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.

FIF will be hosting three upcoming webinars during December:

• SEC Government Securities ATSs. On Tuesday December 8^th at 2 pm ET, Julian Rainero and Bill Barbera of the Schulte Roth & Zabel law firm will present on the recent SEC Government Securities ATS rule proposal with James Dolan of Luminex as moderator. The rule proposal also impacts existing ATSs. Register here.
• Annual FIF CAT Webinar. On Monday December 14^th at 4 pm ET, FIF will host a year-end CAT Webinar sponsored by Refinitiv. Will Leahey of Refinitiv will be the moderator for the panel. The panelists will include Shelly Bohlin of FINRA CAT, Christopher Bok of OTC Markets, Doug Craig of ION Group, Jeremy Kahn of Jane Street, and Jacki VanMoer of Goldman Sachs. Register here.
• Executive Order 13959. FIF will be hosting a webinar on the recent Executive Order 13959, which will prohibit certain transactions in publicly traded securities of any Chinese military company or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to, such securities. Satish Kini of the Debevoise law firm will host the webinar. Date and time for the webinar will be finalized shortly.

On December 4th, FIF submitted a comment letter on the SEC’s “Proposed Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail to Enhance Data Security”. The FIF comment letter focused on the currently proposed CAT CAIS (Customer Account and Information System) reporting requirements.

FIF will feature the following spotlight presentations on upcoming Committee and Working Group calls:

• FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs (Thursday December 3 at 1 pm ET). FIF has scheduled a call for the Back Office Committee to focus on the recent SEC no-action letter relating to FPL programs (programs in which broker-dealers borrow fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers). Nihal Patel from the Cadwalader law firm will provide background on the rule proposal.

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.

FIF will be hosting two webinars during December:

• On Tuesday December 8^th at 2 pm ET, Julian Rainero and Bill Barbera of the Schulte Roth & Zabel law firm will present on the recent SEC Government Securities ATS rule proposal with James Dolan of Luminex as moderator. The rule proposal also impacts existing ATSs.
• On Monday December 14^th at 4 pm ET, FIF will host a year-end CAT Webinar sponsored by Refinitiv. Will Leahey of Refinitiv will be the moderator for the panel. The panelists will include Shelly Bohlin of FINRA CAT, Christopher Bok of OTC Markets, Doug Craig of ION Group, Jeremy Kahn of Jane Street, and Jacki VanMoer of Goldman Sachs. Registration details will be distributed later today.