CFTC Issues No-Action SEF Relief for Prime Brokers Prime brokerages are getting new encouragement to trade swaps via swap execution facilities (SEFs), according to a recent action via the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO). Officials at the division announced that they will provide no-action relief to facilitate prime brokerage activities on… Read More >>
Bitcoin Broker Pays $990K Penalty for Alleged Violations
A brokerage located in the Marshall Islands, 1pool Ltd., and Patrick Brunner, its owner and CEO, are paying a $990,000 civil penalty to resolve a CFTC consent order charging them in federal court with making “illegal bitcoin-related transactions,” failing to register as a futures commission merchant (FCM) and “failing to meet its supervisory duties by… Read More >>
CFTC Bans Trader for Spoofing Futures Contracts
Krishna Mohan, a former “quant,” or quantitative analyst, at a so-far unidentified “proprietary trading firm,” has admitted in court to “thousands of acts of spoofing (bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution) in a variety of futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of… Read More >>
CFTC, U.K. Build a Regulatory Bridge Over Brexit
As the United Kingdom faces the March 29 deadline for Brexit, the CFTC and the Bank of England along with the Prudential Regulation Authority (BoE), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are providing clarification on the regulatory framework governing derivatives processing and clearing between the U.K. and U.S. if and when the UK completes its… Read More >>
Social Media Played Role in Alleged FX Scam
The CFTC is taking legal action via the federal court system against an individual allegedly running a foreign exchange (FX) trading scam that exploited social media outlets to lure more than 140 fraud victims. Citing a misappropriation of customer funds and many regulatory violations, the regulator has entered a preliminary injunction via the U.S. District… Read More >>
CFTC Kept Watch During the Shutdown
One of the unknowns of the 35-day, partial federal government shutdown that ended on January 25 is what happens when the regulators aren’t looking. For the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), it “continued to perform essential market-critical functions throughout the shutdown,” says Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo in a statement issued on Jan. 28 when… Read More >>
Northern Trust to Support Abu Dhabi Firm’s Funds
Firm Taps Northern Trust for UCITS Support An investment management firm based in Abu Dhabi, AD Global Investors, will be using the asset servicing and trading solutions from Northern Trust to provide “an extensive range of to support its four new UCITS funds,” officials say. This is the second time that the firm will be… Read More >>
New IM Burdens Spur Vendors Into Action
New rules for posting initial margin (IM) for bilateral over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives instruments are looming for buy-side firms as vendors, service providers, consultants and others are ramping up their offerings in anticipation of expensive and painful compliance burdens to come. The tougher IM requirements stem from the G20-sanctioned mandates of the Basel Committee on Banking… Read More >>
SEC, CFTC Brace for Extended Government Shutdown
As the U.S. gets back to work after the holidays, SEC and CFTC officials are preparing for an ongoing and widening shutdown of the federal government that may affect the law enforcement and litigation efforts of the regulators. When the shutdown began on Dec. 22, initially nine federal departments and agencies were impacted by the… Read More >>
CFTC Explains Smart Contracts
Through its LabCFTC extension for FinTech innovation, the CFTC has issued a primer “intended to be an educational tool” to explain what a “smart contract” actually is (in case you’re not certain), and to point out some of its shortcomings. “Fundamentally, a ‘smart contract’ is a set of coded computer functions,” according to the primer…. Read More >>
