Two of the major overseers of financial markets — the SEC and the CFTC — appear to be in a bureaucratic tug-of-war when it comes to the regulatory oversight of emerging digital assets, and former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is proposing that the agencies work together to co-create a crypto bureau. In addition, an… Read More >>
Senate Makes Behnam the New CFTC Chairman
Lost in the tsunami of federal government budget battle news is the welcome development that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has a new, official chairman — Rostin “Russ” Behnam, and that the stage has been set for a full roster of commissioners. On Dec. 16, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to approve Rostin Behnam… Read More >>
JPMorgan Fined $200M for Skipping Digital Recordkeeping
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is paying a hefty $200 million in fines to the SEC and the CFTC on charges that it failed to retain and store trading-related digital communication records of staff members of JPMorgan Securities (JPMS), a broker-dealer subsidiary of the financial services giant. JPMorgan will be paying $125 million to the SEC… Read More >>
ICE Shakes Up NYSE’s Executive Team
December has always been full of surprises — good and bad — and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the exchanges company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, has announced a slew of executive surprises this week for NYSE and ICE. In a press release and an accompanying letter from Jeff Sprecher, founder, chairman, and CEO… Read More >>
LCH Approved for Portfolio Margining of Swaps
CFTC Also Permits Security-Based Swaps Margining The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved a request by Banque Centrale de Compensation, doing business as LCH SA, to provide portfolio margining of swaps and security-based swaps in a cleared swaps customer account, officials say. “The order establishes terms and conditions under which LCH SA and its clearing members… Read More >>
tZero’s ATS to Offer Clearing & Settlement
FINRA Gives tZero ATS the Green Light The tZero ATS, an alternative trading system/broker-dealer subsidiary of blockchain technology vendor tZero, reports that it has achieved what it says is a milestone development — the approval to offer settlement and clearing services for securities transactions for itself and its broker-dealer affiliates, officials say. The Financial… Read More >>
Did a Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Get Nearly $200M?
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has just announced a record-setting whistleblower award of nearly $200 million but it was quickly followed by a report in The Wall Street Journal that identified the tipster as someone from Deutsche Bank. The CFTC protects all whistleblowers via confidentiality. In a press release dated Oct. 21, CFTC officials acknowledged… Read More >>
UBS Pays $500K to Resolve Audio Deletion Case
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an order “simultaneously filing and settling” charges against UBS AG for “failing to retain certain audio recordings for the time required under CFTC regulations.” Rather than retaining the recordings of more than 1,000 hours of audio data — including voice recording files that were required by CFTC regulations… Read More >>
CFTC Focuses on SOFR for Interdealer Brokers
Just in case you were wondering, the CFTC is doing its part for interdealer brokers transitioning from the ill-fated Libor reference rate to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) for U.S. Dollar (USD) non-linear derivatives, which are instruments whose rewards are not set in stone like swaps, futures, and forwards. In fact, the regulator has… Read More >>
CFTC Fines Citi in Second Swaps Reporting Case
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled charges against Citibank, N.A. and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. — two provisionally registered swap dealers, aka Citi — for allegedly “failing to comply with certain swap dealer requirements,” and for related charges of supervision failures. Specifically, the CFTC charged that those two Citi units did not… Read More >>
