In other FinTech news, TIAA hears voices, ED&F partners, Innotribe supports hubs, the Hyperledger Project is more popular, and Mainfirst Bank signs on with Caceis.
SEC Awards a Total of $107 Million to Whistleblowers
The SEC has given a whistleblower “more than $22 million” for a “detailed tip and extensive assistance” that allowed the regulator to halt “a well-hidden fraud at the company where the whistleblower worked,” according to officials.
“The $22 million-plus award is the second-largest total the SEC has awarded a whistleblower. The largest, $30 million, was awarded in 2014,” SEC officials add.
“Without this whistleblower’s courage, information, and assistance, it would have been extremely difficult for law enforcement to discover this securities fraud on its own,” says Jane Norberg, acting chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, in a prepared statement.
The five-year-old whistleblower program “has now surpassed $100 million in total money awarded,” according to the SEC. “More than $107 million has been awarded to 33 whistleblowers who became eligible for an award by voluntarily providing the SEC with original and useful information that led to a successful enforcement action. Whistleblower awards can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million.”
The whistleblower payments come from an investor protection fund “established by Congress that is financed through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators,” SEC officials say. “No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards.”
SEC officials say that since the whistleblower program’s start:
- The Whistleblower Office received “more than 14,000 whistleblower tips from individuals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and 95 foreign countries;”
- And tips from whistleblowers have increased from 3,001 in fiscal year 2012 —the first full fiscal year that the Whistleblower Office was in operation — to nearly 4,000 last year, an approximately 30 percent increase;
The information and assistance via these whistleblowers has helped the SEC bring successful enforcement actions where “more than $504 million was ordered in sanctions, including more than $346 million in disgorgement and interest for harmed investors,” officials say.
TIAA to Use Voice Biometrics System
Financial services provider, TIAA, has launched of its new voice biometric authentication system to offer “a more seamless customer experience,” officials say.
The voice recognition functions will create a “voiceprint” to help customers present their identity to TIAA representatives or when they transfer funds or check their account balances. “The technology eliminates the need to remember yet another password, PIN or account number,” officials add. “By using their secure vocal password, customers will be able to skip many of the various authentication steps used today. The system is equipped to detect and safeguard against voice recordings.” Voice biometrics is now available to most TIAA retirement participants.
ED&F Partners with Algorithmic Traders Association
Global brokerage ED&F Man Capital Markets has announced a key partnership with an educational forum, the Algorithmic Traders Association (ATA), that will give the firm new access to ATA’s knowledge base and community of traders, officials say.
In addition, ED&F Man Capital Markets “will provide ATA members with seamless access to markets supported by a robust and sophisticated technology footprint,” officials say. “ATA members will be able to benefit from ED&F Man’s low-latency connectivity and Direct Market Access to an array of financial exchanges. The full-service proposition also benefits from trading and IT support, globally, 24 hours a day. Importantly, there are no long term contracts (just month-to-month).”
The ATA was founded in 2009 by Doron Whitman, a veteran trading systems architect and coach, officials say. The ATA offers a certification educational program about the lifecycle of trading strategies and techniques for back-testing, optimization and proper risk management.
Innotribe, Innovate Finance Launch a Federation of Hubs
Innotribe, a SWIFT group focused on innovation, and Innovate Finance, an independent membership organization for financial technology, have launched the Global FinTech Hubs Federation (GFHF), created to foster innovation across the world’s financial services industry.
More than 20 countries — including Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom — are participating in the GFHF and more countries are expected to join over the coming months, officials say.
The independent and inclusive global network of GFHF targets “the need within the international FinTech community to create a truly cross border and open platform that brings together established and emerging FinTech hubs,” officials say.
The GFHF will have a global voice and global stage for FinTech hubs, with participants “gaining an influential point of engagement with international stakeholders and like-minded organizations from across the world,” officials say. The GFHF will also facilitate access to Sibos, the Innovate Finance Global Summit, and events hosted by GFHF participants.
Hyperledger Project Grows Membership by 170%
The Hyperledger Project, a cross-industry effort to advance blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT), reports that 17 organizations have joined the project started to create an open standard for distributed ledgers that will support “a new generation of transactional applications,” officials say.
“At a growth rate of nearly two new members joining per week — there’s no telling where we’ll be at by the end of the year — I look forward to working with this growing community to further our open blockchain development efforts,” says Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger Project, in a prepared statement.
Hyperledger Project officials say the effort is “to build and run robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems” to support their individual business transactions via an open source distributed ledger framework and code base, officials say.
The new Hyperledger members come from across Europe, Asia and the United States and join a rapidly growing and diverse group across finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and other technologies.
The latest members include: Cloud Security Alliance; Energy Blockchain Laboratory; Global Peersafe Technology Corp.; Inuit Foundation — University of Rome Tor Vergata, Intuit, Investrata Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (IFSE); iRootech Technology Co. Ltd; MIRACL UK Ltd.; Netki; Nxt Foundation; Orange Magic Cube (GoX Tech); Samsung SDS; Sany Heavy Group Co., Ltd; Tai Cloud Corp.; Union Mobile Pay E-Commerce Co., Ltd.; Wutongtree; and Yunphant Blockchain.
Mainfirst Bank Signs On with Caceis for Clearing and Settlement
Frankfurt-based Mainfirst Bank has selected Caceis in Germany to “provide settlement services for their institutional trading activities,” officials says. Mainfirst, which specializes in equity brokerage, equity capital markets and asset management, went live with Caceis as of July 2016.
Caceis, the asset servicing banking group of Crédit Agricole, focuses on institutional and corporate clients. Mainfirst appointed Caceis after a request for proposal process, bank officials add.
By working with Caceis, Mainfirst will have access to “a broad range of European markets,” and can support many brokers, says Holger Sepp, member of the management board at Caceis in Germany, in a prepared statement.
“We were looking for a professional long-term partner to support our plans to further develop our business in Europe,” says Björn Kirchner, chief financial officer (CFO) for Mainfirst.
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