• Front Office Committee. On February 23, Mark Schaedel of Vondelpark Capital will discuss recent efforts to introduce a consolidated tape in Europe.
• Tax Information Reporting Working Group. On February 23, Andrew Bernknopf, Partner at the De Castro West law firm, will discuss Taxation of Partnership Equity Compensation and Carried Interests.
• Data and Technology Working Group. On February 24, Sean Spector of IEX will review an analysis of the performance impact of using minimum quantity on the IEX exchange.

On February 19, 2021, FIF submitted a comment letter to FINRA in response to FINRA’s request for comment on Enhancements to TRACE Reporting for U.S. Treasury Securities. The content of the comment letter is based on feedback from participants of the FIF TRACE Working Group. FIF would like to thank the members of the TRACE Working Group for participating in the Working Group discussions and providing their input on the comment letter.

During March, the TRACE Working Group will continue to focus on a rule proposal by the Federal Reserve to expand TRACE reporting for Treasuries and agencies to certain depository institutions and the potential impact on broker-dealers that currently report to TRACE.

During October 2018, FIF Members presented recommendations to the SEC staff for the modernization of Rule 605. These recommendations, which were developed through the FIF Rule 605 Working Group, were focused on updating Rule 605 to reflect market changes since the adoption of Rule 605 in 2000.  More recently, various FIF members have requested that FIF reconvene the Rule 605 Working Group to review and update these recommendations to re-present to the SEC staff during 2021. FIF has scheduled an initial call for this Working Group for February 25 at 11 am ET.

If you are not a member of the Rule 605 Working Group and would like to join, update your subscriptions on your profile here: https://fif.com/index.php/profile  If you're having trouble, or forgot your password, email fifinfo@fif.com for assistance.

At the request of FIF Members, FIF is creating a Working Group to focus on short sale interpretive and operational questions and potential enhancements to Regulation SHO. In order to join this group, update your subscriptions on your profile here: https://fif.com/index.php/profile  If you're having trouble, or forgot your password, email fifinfo@fif.com for assistance. 

On February 19, FIF members participated on a call with FINRA CAT and the Plan Participants to discuss CAIS reporting for non-US persons.