FINRA, the financial services industry’s self-regulatory organization, reports that Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (TFA) has “agreed to pay approximately $4.4 million in restitution to approximately 2,400 customers for failing to supervise its registered representatives’ recommendations of three different products — variable annuities, mutual funds, and 529 plans.” FINRA also fined TFA an additional $4.4 million,… Read More >>
Robinhood Financial Pays $65M to Settle SEC Case
Robinhood Financial LLC, a Silicon Valley brokerage company founded by two Stanford University grads, Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, will pay $65 million to settle charges that it misled its investors by making “material misrepresentations and omissions,” according to a cease-and-desist order from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Robinhood Financial “provides online and… Read More >>
BlueCrest & SEC Resolve Charges of Investor Harm
BlueCrest Capital Management has settled charges via the SEC that it failed its investors by assigning its best human traders to a proprietary hedge fund while its external investors were serviced by an allegedly mediocre algorithm. The U.S. regulator reports that the hedge fund “has agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges arising from… Read More >>
CFTC Enforcers Report Banner Year for 2020
’Tis the season for annual reports, and one of the most instructive is from the regulator Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its Division of Enforcement. When it comes to the CFTC’s mission to “be tough on those who break the rules,” as Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vince McGonagle puts it in a commission… Read More >>
JPMorgan Chase & OCC Resolve Risk Control Charges
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury, has hit JPMorgan Chase, with a $250 million fine. The reason for the civil penalty: “The OCC found the bank’s risk management practices were deficient and it lacked a sufficient framework to avoid conflicts of… Read More >>
Julius Baer & DoJ Resolve FIFA Case for $79M
Swiss private bank Julius Baer reports that it has reached a $79.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving a money-laundering probe involving the Zurich-based world soccer group, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The U.S. settlement follows actions by the Swiss financial services regulator to close its case against the bank. Justice… Read More >>
Spoofing Cases Yield a Record Fine & Convictions
False trade orders that spur sharp market price reactions before they disappear — otherwise known as “spoof orders” — have the full attention of authorities as evidenced by a recent record fine against JPMorgan, and the conviction of two former traders at Deutsche Bank. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay nearly one billion… Read More >>
Credit Suisse Securities Settles Another Blue-Sheets Case
Are blue sheets difficult to file correctly? The question arises because Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has been fined $600,000 for “failure to submit to the [Securities and Exchange] Commission true and complete data in response to Commission staff electronic blue sheets (‘EBS’) requests, resulting in the reporting of EBS that was incomplete or deficient.”… Read More >>
Supervisory Failures Alleged in Wells Fargo Annuity Switches
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports that Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, two units of the San Francisco-based, multinational financial services company, will pay more than $2 million on charges of “supervisory violations related to variable annuity switches.” The Wells Fargo units will pay an additional $1.4 million… Read More >>
AML, KYC Fines Hit $5.6B as of mid-2020
Penalties assessed against financial institutions for non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), and sanctions regulations totaled $5.6 billion by the end of July 2020, according to a mid-year report from a well-known fintech provider. That provider, Fenergo, founded in 2008, characterizes itself as a “digital enabler of client and regulatory technology for… Read More >>
