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To provide an overview of recent developments relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Market Access Rule, Rule 15c3-5 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Provides a brief overview of the Rule’s requirements; highlights key points of guidance from the Frequently Asked Questions released by the Staff of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets in April 2014; and discusses the SEC’s first enforcement actions for alleged violations of the Rule, which include a settlement with Knight Capital Americas, LLC and administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings instituted against Wedbush Securities, Inc.

The SEC has prioritized its focus on Rule 15c3-5, which has resulted in the issuance of FAQs and enforcement actions against broker-dealers for violations of the Rule. While the FAQs and the Knight Capital settlement provide some insight into the Enforcement Staff’s view of what the Rule requires, there are still areas where the substantive requirements are not entirely clear.

Practical guidance from experienced securities lawyers that consolidates several recent developments in one piece.

The purpose of this paper is to explain newly approved Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) books and records rule (Rules 2268, 4511, 4513, 4514, 4515, 5340, and 7440(a)(4)) that will go into effect on December 5, 2011.

The paper highlights the principal new compliance obligations for FINRA members set forth in these rules, including a default six‐year retention period for books and records; requirements to maintain names of associated persons responsible for accounts, to maintain signatures of persons with discretionary authority, to update account records, to preserve files of written customer complaints, to maintain account information after updating and account closure, to maintain authorization records for negotiable instruments, and to document changes in account names and designations; expansion of the deadline for post‐execution allocation to customer accounts; and disclosure requirements for pre‐dispute arbitration agreements.

In addition to consolidating and replacing existing requirements of existing NASD and NYSE rules, the new FINRA rules will impose a number of significant additional requirements for FINRA members.

The paper provides practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.

This paper seeks to explain Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) Rule 4530, which requires members to report to FINRA certain internal and external findings of violative conduct and quarterly statistical and summary customer complaint information.

The paper explains the background and provides an overview of FINRA Rule 4530; analyzes key provisions of the Rule, including the way it differs from legacy NASD and New York Stock Exchange Reporting Rules; and discusses next steps for FINRA members.

FINRA Rule 4530 requires members to promptly report findings of internal and external violations and provides interpretive guidance regarding these requirements. The new Rule imposes obligations beyond those set forth in current NASD Rule 3070, requires reporting of internal findings, and alters the now familiar materiality standard applied to NYSE Rule 351(a).

The new Rule will require members to enhance their policies and procedures to address the reporting of internal findings to define potentially reportable violations, identify decision‐makers to assess potential violations, create or modify reporting escalation procedures, and institute appropriate controls over reporting. Members may want to review their internal audit processes to reflect the new guidance regarding reporting based on internal findings of violations.

The paper provides practical guidance from expert securities lawyers.

To explain a joint effort by the national securities exchanges to implement a Tick Size Pilot program. The pilot program would widen the minimum quoting and trading increments for certain small cap stocks.

The article reviews the Tick Size Pilot plan generally, discusses how the final plan differs from proposed plan, describes securities that will be affected by the plan, and the various test groups under the plan.

Pilot program is designed to provide the SEC with empirical data regarding the impact that tick size may have on the trading of small cap stocks.

Exchanges will be required to adopt rules to implement the pilot program. Broker-Dealers will be required to adopt written policies and procedures to comply with the pilot plan when quoting and for trading.

Practical guidance from experienced securities lawyers. The article describes the operation of the new pilot program.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of a recent SEC settlement with Morgan Stanley & Co. (MS & Co.) with regard to: communication and coordination among legal, compliance, business, and technology departments when designing, implementing, and maintaining operating systems and compliance policies and procedures; and the SEC's view of best execution in the context of net trading and market making.

The paper describes the Settlement Order. Itdiscusses, in light of the Order, the need for firms to coordinate among departments when they implement new systems or make changes to new systems; and provides a legal and regulatory analysis of the basis for MS & Co.'s liability, including a brief history of regulations on best execution and riskless principal trading. It also offers principal lessons to be drawn.

The Settlement Order found that MS & Co. would at times execute with the Street at a better price than it provided to a customer. The SEC noted that MS &Co. violated its duty of best execution in violation of the 1934 Exchange Act but particularly emphasized that the practice was inconsistent with MS & Co.'s established internal policies and procedures and certain disclosures provided by the firm to third‐party broker‐dealers from which it received orders.

Broker‐dealers need to clearly define their processes for implementing new systems or changing existing systems, including approval requirements, responsible individuals, and periodic review procedures to ensure adherence to stated policies and procedures. Broker‐dealers need to disclose net trading practices or similar trading practices to other broker‐dealers that are routing orders to them. They should also review their net trading practices in light of Regulation NMS.

The paper provides practical guidance and review of regulations concerning net trading, riskless principal trading and best execution from experienced securities lawyers.

The crucial importance of innovation leadership for high technology small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has been suggested in the literature. However, few studies empirically examined the impact of leadership style on innovation work behavior (IWB) of employees in the context of SMEs. Furthermore, our knowledge is limited about how leaders of high technology SMEs influence the IWB of their employees. The present study explores the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on IWB of employees and introduces creative self-efficacy and support for innovation as the mechanisms through which the leaders encourage their employees' IWB in information and communications technology (ICT) SMEs in Iran.

The sample was selected from high technology ICT SMEs using the simple random sampling method and included 175 CEOs and owner-managers of the businesses. We used validated questionnaires to test the hypothesized relationships between entrepreneurial leadership, IWB, creative self-efficacy and support for innovation.

The findings show that entrepreneurial leadership has a significant and positive impact on IWB of employees in ICT SMEs. Furthermore, employees’ creative self-efficacy and leaders’ support for innovation mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and IWB. Implications of the results and suggestions for developing IWB among the employees of high technology SMEs are suggested.

The study makes important contributions to both entrepreneurial leadership and the innovation behavior literature and theory development specifically in high technology SMEs in the transitioning economy of Iran. The findings also contribute to the existing empirical studies on how entrepreneurial leadership affects IWB of employees by examining the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and support for innovation and in the settings of ICT high technology SMEs.

This chapter adopts a reflective approach exploring and setting out the contrasting factors that led to the establishment of the subdiscipline in both countries. The factors included the role of key individuals and their respective academic backgrounds and specialisations within each country’s higher education system. Furthermore, attention is given to the particular circumstances in a case analysis comparison of the oldest programs in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. This sheds light upon the factors linked to the disproportionate success profile for the sociology of sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand. An analysis of scholars and programs within each country reveals important differences aligned with the politics of funding and the variety and extent of systematic structures. Additionally, scholars’ specialisations and preferences reveal a broad offering but are primarily linked to globalisation, gender relations, indigeneity and race relations, social policy, and media studies. This work has been undertaken variously via the critical tradition including Birmingham School cultural studies, ethnographic and qualitative approaches and, more recently by some, a postmodern poststructuralist trend. Lastly, along with a brief discussion of current issues, future challenges are set out.

The inaugural meeting of the newly established National Party was held in the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, on Thursday, October 25th, under the presidency of Admiral Lord Beresford. There was a large and distinguished audience numbering about 3,000 persons, among those on the platform being Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Brigadier‐General Page Croft, M.P., Mr. Havelock Wilson, Miss Constance Williams, the Hon. G. J. Jenkins (all of whom addressed the meeting), Earl Bathurst, Sir C. Allom, Major Alan Burgoyne, M.P., Colonel Cassal, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, Sir R. Cooper, M.P., Capt. Viscount Duncannon, M.P., Sir W. Earnshaw Cooper, Mr. H. A. Gwynne, Mr. Rowland Hunt, M.P., Lieut.‐Col. Lord Leconfield, Lord Leith of Fyvie, Admiral Sir H. Markham, The Earl of Northesk, Colonel R. H. Rawson, M.P., Lord Edward St. Maur, Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Lord Stafford and others.