FINRA, the self-regulatory authority for broker-dealers, has fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. $3.25 million for “failing to reasonably supervise” early unit investment trust rollovers. In addition to the fine, the firm will be paying $8.4 million in restitution to “harmed” customers. In the usual formulation, Merrill Lynch neither confirms nor denies the… Read More >>
Crypto Undermines SEC’s Mission: Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Warren Urges SEC to Consider Crypto Regs Wall Street critic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC, via a recent letter, to investigate the ways that cryptocurrency exchanges “may be undermining the SEC’s mission” as a regulator of securities trading markets. The letter from Warren, who is… Read More >>
FNZ Can Have GBST’s Post-Trade Wares: CMA
The FNZ-GBST acquisition saga may be entering its final act as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the U.K. has reaffirmed its initial findings that their continued merger would reduce competition in the retail investment platform solutions space. This time around, though, the CMA has suggested that FNZ, a wealth management technology and investment… Read More >>
Firm Fined for Alleged Regulation SHO Violations
FINRA, the financial industry’s self-regulatory authority, has charged Wolverine Execution Services with “inaccurately marking sell orders as long rather than short in 18,756 instances.” The firm, based in Chicago, also failed to “document compliance with the locate requirement in 556,388 instances during February 2018,” according to FINRA. Wolverine Execution Services, a subsidiary of Wolverine Trading,… Read More >>
Capitolis Taps State Street for Key Post
Capitolis Hires James Reilly A software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor, Capitolis has hired industry veteran James Reilly from State Street and appointed him as its new head of equity and total return swaps (TRS) funding solutions, officials say. Reilly has two decades of capital markets and financial technology experience. The Capitolis networking software helps firms find liquidity… Read More >>
Score Priority Settles AML Case with FINRA
Broker-dealer Score Priority has settled with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which charged the New York City-based firm with anti-money laundering (AML) violations. According to FINRA, the firm, which changed its name from Just2Trade, Inc. in January 2020, “failed to develop and implement an anti-money laundering (AML) program reasonably designed to achieve and monitor the… Read More >>
SteelEye to Expand into North American Markets
SteelEye Raised $17 Million to Fund Growth SteelEye, a compliance technology and data analytics vendor based in the United Kingdom, reports that it plans to expand into North America. Founded in 2017, SteelEye offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) based regulatory-technology platform for “banks, brokers, and asset managers” that is meant to simplify their compliance processes, officials say. In… Read More >>
Will Blockchain Deliver on Its Promises in 2021?
I think our lead fintech news brief about Instinet and Credit Suisse completing multiple equities transactions in T+0 via blockchain/distributed ledger technology [https://bit.ly/2OwJJWJ] may have more significance than at first glance. These two major players used the Paxos Settlement Service from Paxos Trust Company, a self-described infrastructure provide, to settle U.S.-listed equities trades on a… Read More >>
FIA to Biden: Derivatives Can Combat Climate Change
After four long years of an administration that routinely dismissed and disparaged environmental issues, the pressing need to combat climate change finally has an ally. That ally is the new president. And in turn, President Biden has an ally in Walt Lukken, the president and chief executive officer of the Futures Industry Association (FIA), who… Read More >>
BNY Mellon & Google Cloud Take On Treasury Settlements
BNY Mellon to Apply Google Cloud Technologies The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) will be using Google Cloud technologies to help U.S. Treasury market participants “better predict billions of dollars in daily settlement failures,” officials say. The combined effort is also intended to “generate significant capital and liquidity savings, and unlock operational efficiencies,”… Read More >>
