FIF held a great event on Thursday at the offices of OTC Markets Group and we would like to thank all of those who came out. The first panel of the evening was “SEC Exchange Act Rule 3b-16- New Exchange Definition, Revised ATS Regulation, & Reg SCI”. The panelists were Robert Laorno of ICE, Thomas Merritt of Virtu, and Gary Stone of Bloomberg. This panel discussed the SEC’s proposed changes to the regulatory definition of an exchange and the SEC’s proposal to expand Reg ATS and Reg SCI. The panel also discussed the potential impact of new regulation to communication protocol systems/negotiation protocol systems. 
The second panel was “The Evolution of Digital Assets to Mainstream”. Panelists were Brian Mulcahy of StoneX, John Palmer of Cboe, Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto of EDX Markets, and Daniel Zinn of OTC Markets. This panel discussed emerging activities in Digital Assets. Topics included the current environment and Digital Assets similarity with and differences from current asset classes. Regulatory issues are not resolved, but panelists discussed initiatives in play that advance the growth of this asset class. Definitions of terms and processes were also shared. 
Both panels ended with answering the question on the way forward and how FIF can assist. The moderator for both panels was Tom Jordan, the Chair of the FIF Advisory Committee. 
Again we would like to thank everyone who attended in what was a great turnout. And a big thank you to OTC Markets, who were great hosts. 

The FIF CAT Monthly Update Working Group call for July will be on Thursday July 6 at 2 pm ET. The Working Group will review guidance and updates from the CAT Plan Participants and FINRA CAT on CAT Transaction Reporting and CAT CAIS reporting during the prior month. The Working Group will also review the current areas of focus for FIF members and the current open issues for CAT Transaction Reporting and CAT CAIS reporting.

Because of the July 4 holiday, FIF has cancelled the regularly scheduled CAT Transaction Reporting and CAT CAIS calls for this week. The next regulatory-scheduled calls for these Working Groups will be on Wednesday July 12.

FIF has scheduled a call for Thursday July 6 at 1 pm ET to discuss: requesting that FINRA provide additional transparency to assist industry members in reconciling Section 31 fees; and potential changes to address inefficiencies in the current collection process for Section 31 fees. If you would like to participate in this discussion, please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com.

On Monday July 10 at 2 pm ET, FINRA CAT will provide an updated presentation to members of the FIF CAT Transaction Reporting Working Group on CAT reporting for RFQ responses.