(Editor’s note: Earlier this year, Sam Farrell was appointed as head of North America for Torstone Technology, maker of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for post-trade securities and derivatives processing. Based in Toronto, he oversees U.S. and Canadian operations. A key focus for Farrell will be the North American push for trading day plus one (T+1)… Read More >>
Templum Brings Trading Technology to Securitized Artwork: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Earlier this month, Templum, a provider of capital markets infrastructure technology for alternatives and private securities, reported that it had a new client — Masterworks LLC. The new client is an alternative investment platform for buying and trading shares in works of art that are often worth millions. Masterworks, which finds and then… Read More >>
FINRA to Tag Errant Firms as ‘Restricted’
If you’re a broker-dealer firm, you might want to mark June 1, 2023 on your calendar. That’s the enforcement start date for a new FINRA designation: Restricted. Restricted as in there’s a history of misconduct allegations against the firm. And restricted because the firm presents a “high degree of risk to the investing public.” So… Read More >>
The SEC Wants Electronic Filing for All Forms
Late last month, the SEC put forward amendments intended to “modernize its information collection and analysis methods by, among other things, proposing that a number of filings be submitted to the Commission electronically on EDGAR [the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval] system using structured data where appropriate,” according to the regulator’s announcement. Many in… Read More >>
Riding Out the Ripple Effects of the Bank Failures
The rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and the troubles swirling around First Republic Bank, which offers private banking and wealth management services, are technically happening separately from global securities markets. But actual regulatory and operational impacts and the contagion of panic are causing real ripple effects upon regulators, other banks, and… Read More >>
Swiss Central Bank Throws Credit Suisse a Lifeline
Credit Suisse Group will be borrowing $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the central bank for Switzerland, in an effort to stabilize its fiscal situation, which began spinning out of control at about the same time as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the U.S. collapsed. These parallel but essentially unrelated events have together… Read More >>
SEC & CFTC Penalize Options Clearing Corp. for $22M
The Options Clearing Corp. (OCC), regarded as the largest equity derivatives clearing organization in the world, has announced settlements with the SEC and CFTC that add up to $22 million and are based on a self-reported case of shortcomings in meeting internal efforts to lower key operational risks. The cases revolve around the implementation of… Read More >>
SEC Approves Amendments to Allow T+1 Settlement
The SEC’s commissioners voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to pass a set of amendments and new rules that would facilitate an industry-wide move from the current trading day plus two (T+2) settlement cycle to the shorter, one-day, T+1 time frame for U.S. equity markets. The vote also endorsed a compliance date of May 28,… Read More >>
UBS Securities Hit With Another FINRA Fine
UBS Securities, a subsidiary of the world’s largest private bank, is in trouble with FINRA, the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization (SRO). It’s not the first time. From the regulatory authority’s customary Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC), FINRA alleges: “From September 2015 through January 2019, UBS-S published inaccurate monthly statistics regarding execution of covered… Read More >>
State Street to Use AWS & Azure for Overhaul & Other News
Two State Street Data Centers to Move to AWS State Street Corp. has picked Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud services and data center provider while simultaneously expanding a current contract with Microsoft’s Azure cloud services in order to give clients real-time data access across State Street tools and third-party services thus streamlining investment… Read More >>
