In other news, an SEC commissioner resigns, OFX buys Firma, Blythe Masters re-emerges, Northern Trust launches climate reporting & NeoXam hires from State Street.
FinCEN Wants to Improve AML/CFT Regs
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury better known as FinCEN, has issued a request for information that asks for comments on “ways to streamline, modernize, and update the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime of the United States.”
A FinCEN statement says that it is “particularly interested in comments on ways to modernize risk-based AML/CFT regulations and guidance, issued pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) so that they, on a continuing basis, protect U.S. national security in a cost-effective and efficient manner.”
The RFI also “supports FinCEN’s efforts to conduct a formal review of BSA regulations and related guidance, which is required by Section 6216 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.”
FinCEN adds that it will “report to Congress the findings of the review, including administrative and legislative recommendations.”
“We recognize that the illicit finance threat landscape continues to evolve and that technology and innovation now play an important role in the efficient application of resources to combat illicit finance,” FinCEN Acting Director Himamauli Das says in a statement.
“I urge all relevant stakeholders to review the RFI and comment on ways that FinCEN can modernize AML/CFT regulations and guidance and better promote a risk-based approach to AML/CFT compliance,” Das says.
The deadline for submitting comments is February 14, 2022. — L.Ch
Republican SEC Commissioner to Depart
Elad Roisman
Elad L. Roisman, a Republican member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who was sworn into office on September 11, 2018 and became acting chairman on Dec. 24, 2020, is leaving his post.
In a statement Roisman says: “Today, I sent a letter to President Biden, informing him that I intend to resign my position by the end of January. Serving the American people as a Commissioner and an Acting Chairman of this agency has been the greatest privilege of my professional life. It has been the utmost honor to work alongside my extraordinary SEC colleagues, who care deeply about investors and our markets. Over the next several weeks, I remain committed to working with my fellow Commissioners and the SEC’s incredible staff to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.”
Roisman joined the SEC from the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he was its chief counsel.
Before that, he was counsel to SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher, “focusing on enforcement and policy relating to the U.S. equity and fixed income markets, the asset management industry, and international regulation of capital markets,” according to the statement. — L.Ch
OFX to Acquire Firma Foreign Exchange Corporation
OFX Group Ltd., based in Sydney, Australia, reports that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of Firma Foreign Exchange Corporation.
The price: $98 million (or $90 million in Canadian currency), according to the OFX statement.
Firma is a foreign exchange service provider for corporate clients that is based in Edmonton, Canada, and was founded in 1998.
As of the end of September 2021, Firma had 194 employees, more than 9,600 corporate customers and nine offices in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Firma’s offerings include “spot and market orders, multi-currency accounts, payments and mass payments and forward contracts,” according to the OFX statement.
The acquisition is expected to close in first quarter of FY23 subject to customary conditions, per the statement. — L.Ch
Wilshire Hires Blythe Masters & Forms Advisory Group
Blythe Masters
Wilshire, an investment technology and advisory company, reports the formation of the Wilshire Digital Asset Advisory Group.
Former CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, Blythe Masters, a founding partner at Motive Partners, a private equity firm, has been named the advisory group’s chair. Masters is known for devising the credit default swap instrument.
Wilshire’s intent in forming the advisory group is to assemble the “top digital asset practitioners in the world to capture their collective perspectives and insights. A crucial next step is to deliver an industry-standard Digital Assets Taxonomy System (DATS),” Wilshire says in a statement,
Wilshire officials also note that, as of October 2021, “there are over 7,000 active digital assets in existence, moving far beyond cryptocurrencies. Working with Digital Asset Research (DAR), a specialist provider of crypto data and research, the Advisory Group has developed a comprehensive methodology for the classification of digital assets. DATS allows the industry to categorize, manage and research digital asset technologies by identifying common usage types and underlying technologies, as well as investment themes. This is an important building block for the institutional market to develop investment solutions based on rigorous research.”
The digital assets advisory group will “review DATS classification decisions on a quarterly basis as the digital asset market continues to evolve at pace. Any changes will be formally communicated to the markets via a press release from Wilshire and DAR to ensure full transparency,” the Wilshire statement adds. — L.Ch
Northern Trust Launches Climate Focus Reporting
Custodian giant Northern Trust reports that it is adding to its suite of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment analytics to deliver new climate-risk reporting for global institutional investor clients.
Its Climate Focus report “offers clients a range of carbon metrics, physical risk and transition risk detail at the portfolio level,” the firm says in a statement. The metrics include “detailed emissions information … carbon intensity measures and forward-looking scenario pathway analysis.”
The information gathered for the report “supports institutional investors, such as pension funds — helping them assess key climate change risk factors against investments in their portfolio and compare them against representative benchmarks for absolute and relative analysis over time,” per Northern Trust, which also points out that the information “supports clients’ internal oversight and external disclosure obligations through its alignment with the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting recommendations.”
Northern Trust Corp. was founded in Chicago in 1889. Today, it maintains “offices in 22 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and across 23 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. As of September 30, 2021, Northern Trust had assets under custody/administration of US$15.8 trillion, and assets under management of US$1.5 trillion.” — L.Ch
NeoXam Taps State Street for EMEA West MD
NeoXam, a financial software company headquartered in Paris, France, reports the appointment of France Bruno Noyon as managing director for the EMEA West region. Noyon is a former State Street chief operating officer (COO), the vendor notes in a statement.
Noyon most recently was managing director of IQ-EQ France and the CEO of Equitis Gestion, per NeoXam. Prior to this, he spent more than 15 years as COO and senior vice president of State Street’s global servicing business in France, per the statement.
NeoXam’s EMEA West region includes “several major financial centres in France, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain,” the vendor points out, adding that Noyon will be “responsible for overseeing over 100 consultants and an experienced distribution team, overseeing growth at the top level whilst maintaining the high level of client service & delivery.”
NeoXam spotlights its “150+ customers in 25 countries worldwide,” representing more than 10,000 users. — L.Ch
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