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The purpose of this paper is to summarize the January 11, 2018, Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee’s (“FIMSAC”) inaugural meeting held at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

This paper discusses the various topics covered at the inaugural FIMSAC meeting including the exploration of a variety of bond market liquidity issues, including the metrics for analyzing liquidity in the bond market and what these metrics mean for liquidity and dealer intermediation, electronic trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), transparency and potential policy responses to increase liquidity and the efficiency of the market.

The FIMSAC Chairman proposed the creation of subcommittees addressing modernization, fixed income ETFs and transparency.

This paper contains information on important topics raised by the fixed income market participants to the SEC and is helpful to all entities participating in the fixed income markets.

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 explain rule changes proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission designed to address regulatory concerns related to “dark pools” of liquidity.

The paper explains the background and policy issues related to dark pools, discusses the SEC's amended definition of “bid” or “offer” under Regulation NMS to include “actionable indications of interest” (“actionable IOIs”), outlines a proposed reduction of the average daily trading volume threshold that triggers a public display of ATS orders from 5 percent to 0.25 percent, discusses a proposal to require an alternative trading system (“ATS”) to disclose its identity in real time on its reports of executed trades, and explains proposed size‐discovery exclusions to the changes detailed above.

The paper finds that the proposed rules represent the Commission's attempts to improve the NMS without inhibiting the use or continued technological development of trading strategies that are consistent with NMS goals.

The paper provides a clear explanation of complex market mechanisms and proposed rules by experienced financial institution and securities lawyers.

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.

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.

Integrating the reciprocity and equity lenses, this study explores the curvilinear relationship between leader humility and employee organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) by introducing psychological entitlement and perspective taking, and constructing a moderated mediation curvilinear model aiming to provide a more comprehensive understanding of why and how leader humility affects OCBs.

Using multisource, three-wave data collected from 261 employees and 55 supervisors in China, we adopted multi-level modeling analysis to test the moderated mediation curvilinear model that links leader humility to OCBs.

We found a curvilinear relationship between leader humility and psychological entitlement, and psychological entitlement mediated the curvilinear indirect relationship between leader humility and OCBs. Furthermore, employees' perspective taking buffered this curvilinear indirect effect.

Following social exchange theory and prior research discussing the potential benefits and drawbacks of leader humility, this study developed and tested a moderated mediation curvilinear model of the relationship between leader humility and OCBs. Our study thus provides a more balanced and dialectical perspective on understanding the effects of leader humility and enriching the leadership process model. This study also offers actionable strategies for leaders and organizations to optimize the benefits of humble leadership.