FIF has set up a new Securities Lending Transparency Working Group. This Working Group will discuss and prepare a comment letter on the SEC’s November 18 rule proposal to create a new reporting system for securities lending. The reporting system, as proposed by the SEC, will apply to equities and bonds, including corporates, Treasuries, Agencies, asset and mortgage-backed securities, and municipal bonds. The next meeting for this Working Group is scheduled for Thursday December 16 at 11am ET. To subscribe to this group, please either update your profile or email us at fifinfo@fif.com.

On November 23, 2021, FINRA filed SR-FINRA-2021-029 with the SEC, “Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 6732 (Exemption from Trade Reporting Obligation for Certain Transactions on an Alternative Trading System)”. On December 1, 2021, FINRA filed SR-FINRA-2021-030 with the SEC, “Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change to Amend FINRA Rule 6730 to Require Members to Append Modifiers to Delayed Treasury Spot and Portfolio Trades When Reporting to TRACE.” FIF has scheduled the next call for the TRACE Working Group for Tuesday December 14 at 2pm ET to continue the Working Group discussion of these filings and to review a draft comment letter.

The FIF Back Office Committee will meet on Tuesday, December 7 at 10am ET to review applicable FICC, DTC, NSCC, SEC, MSRB, OCC, IRS and FINRA updates during the past month.

On November 30, 2021, FIF had a call with FINRA to discuss FIF member questions relating to the Supplemental Liquidity Schedule (SLS) recently adopted by FINRA (see FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-31). The SLS takes effect on March 1, 2022. If you are interested in participating in discussions with other FIF members on this topic, please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com.

On Wednesday December 15 at 10am ET Alaina R. Clark, Assistant Director for Stakeholder Engagement at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will present to a joint call of the FIF Cybersecurity and Compliance Working Groups. CISA is an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Clark will discuss the role and functions of CISA, CISA’s current areas of focus, recommendations for industry members on cybersecurity processes and management and reporting of cybersecurity incidents, and opportunities for enhanced cooperation between the industry and federal regulators.

The invite for this presentation has been sent to all members of the FIF Cybersecurity Working Group and the newly-created FIF Compliance Working Group. If you are interested in participating on this call and do not have the invite in your calendar, please update your profile and add yourself to either the Cybersecurity Working Group or the newly-formed Compliance Working Group. Alternatively, you can email fifinfo@fif.com to request an invite for this presentation.