Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND REGULATORY MATTERS

The securities and commodities industry is highly regulated and many aspects of our business involve substantial risk of liability. In past years, there has been an increasing incidence of litigation involving the brokerage industry, including class action suits that generally seek substantial damages, including in some cases punitive damages. Compliance and trading problems that are reported to federal, state and provincial regulators, exchanges or other self-regulatory organizations by dissatisfied customers are investigated by such regulatory bodies, and, if pursued by such regulatory body or such customers, may rise to the level of arbitration or disciplinary action. We are also subject to periodic regulatory audits and inspections.

Like other brokerage firms, we have been named as a defendant in lawsuits and from time to time we have been threatened with, or named as a defendant in arbitrations and administrative proceedings. We may in the future become involved in additional litigation or regulatory proceedings in the ordinary course of our business, including litigation or regulatory proceedings that could be material to our business.

For more information regarding pending and threatened legal actions and proceedings see Note 14 - “Commitments, Contingencies, and Guarantees” to the consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Pending Regulatory Inquiries

Our businesses are heavily regulated by state, federal and foreign regulatory agencies as well as numerous exchanges and self-regulatory organizations. Most of our companies are regulated under some or all of the following: state securities laws, U.S. and foreign securities, commodities and financial services laws and the rules of the more than 150 exchanges, market centers and self-regulatory organizations of which one or more of our companies may be members. In the current era of heightened regulatory scrutiny of financial institutions, we have incurred increased compliance costs, along with the industry as a whole. Increased regulation also creates increased barriers to entry. We have built and continue to build human and automated infrastructure in light of increasing regulatory scrutiny, which provides us with a possible advantage over potential newcomers to the business.

We receive many regulatory inquiries each year in addition to being subject to frequent regulatory examinations. The great majority of these inquiries do not lead to fines or any further action against us. We are generally the subject of regulatory inquiries regarding subjects including, but not limited to: audit trail reporting, trade reporting, best execution and order execution procedures, display of market data, short sales, margin lending, exchange fees charged to customers, anti-money laundering or potentially manipulative trading by customers, sanctions compliance, procedures for accounts managed by independent financial advisors or referred by third parties, technology development practices, registration, record-keeping, business continuity planning, cybersecurity and other topics of recent regulatory interest. The Company has procedures for evaluating whether potential regulatory fines are probable, estimable and material and for updating its contingency reserves and disclosures accordingly. In the current climate, we expect to pay significant and increasing regulatory fines on various topics on an ongoing basis, as other regulated financial services businesses do. The amount of any fines, and when and if they will be incurred, typically is impossible to predict given the nature of the regulatory process.

‎ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

PA****RT II