Fed Concerns May Be Spurring Hiring Spree Goldman Sachs Group has reportedly been on a hiring spree for back-office operations and its compliance department positions as a result of supervisory issues raised by Federal Reserve officials, according to multiple media reports, including those from Bloomberg and Reuters. The Bloomberg report noted that the firm intends… Read More >>
Instinet Fined $3.8M for Alleged CAT Reporting Failures
Instinet has paid a $3.8 million fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and settled allegations that the institutional broker failed to fulfill its reporting obligation “timely and accurately” to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system from June 2020 to the present, according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO). The ambitious, big data, securities transaction… Read More >>
The Fed Will Supervise Crypto Assets & More
In early August, the Federal Reserve Board let the banks know that it is keeping an eye on their “novel activities” such as those involving crypto-assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT) otherwise known as blockchain systems. “The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday [Aug. 8] provided additional information on its program to supervise novel activities in… Read More >>
Bittrex Resolves SEC’s Charges for $24M
Crypto asset trading platform Bittrex Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO, William Shihara, have settled with the SEC and will pay $24 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalties over allegations that the platform was functioning as an unregistered national exchange, broker, and clearing agency although the defendants neither admit nor deny the SEC’s allegations…. Read More >>
Watson Wheatley to Use Daymi’s APIs & Other News
New Links Will Help Users Manage iRecs Projects Watson Wheatley, a London-based provider of securities reconciliation, and Daymi, an interactive operations playbook provider based in Stockholm, have launched a connectivity partnership that will enable operations teams to better manage recurring projects, routines and tasks, officials say. “Using the API [application programming interface] connection that… Read More >>
Wedbush Pays $16M to Resolve Recordkeeping Problems
Accusations don’t equal proof of guilt. Lawyers for a certain much-indicted ex-president will tell you that. However, multiple accusations by credible accusers aren’t a particularly good look, whether for a politician or a registered futures commission merchant. Which brings us to Wedbush Securities. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently ordered Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities… Read More >>
SS&C Bolsters Tier 1 CRM Platform & Other News
SS&C’s Tier 1 Gains Users & Features The Tier 1 capital markets and investment banking customer relationship management (CRM) platform from SS&C Technologies has been enhanced, has more than 1,000 new end-users, and has the support of more staff members, officials say. The new features “include improved data insights and in-app information delivery,” officials… Read More >>
Fund Fees Fell in 2022 & Other News
Investors Fled to Low-Cost Funds: Morningstar Investors paid less in fund fees last year mostly because they went for low-cost funds, according to Morningstar’s U.S. Fund Fee Study, an annual review. “Asset-weighted fund fees fell to 0.37 percent in 2022 from 0.40 percent in 2021. This might not sound like much, but it amounted… Read More >>
Time to Ban Stock Trading by Federal Officials?
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat of New York) and U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (Republican of Missouri) have introduced a bill that would “create stringent stock trading bans and disclosure requirements for Congress, senior executive branch officials, and their spouses and dependents.” The Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act prohibits “stock trading, stock ownership, and blind… Read More >>
FINRA Fines LPL $3M for Wire Transfer Woes
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined LPL Financial (LPL) $3 million and ordered the firm to pay $100,000 plus interest in restitution because the firm allegedly “failed to reasonably supervise transfers of customer funds to third parties,” according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers. LPL, a FINRA member since 1973, has… Read More >>
