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 >>
Interactive Brokers Settles SARs & AML Cases for $38M
Interactive Brokers (IB) will be writing several checks and money orders as it pays $38 million in penalties to three industry regulators for alleged failures in filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), and anti-money laundering (AML) controls — a clear sign that authorities are cracking down on the obligation to monitor suspicious activity. The SEC is… Read More >>
Gresham Buys Inforalgo to Bolster Regulatory Reporting
Gresham to Integrate Inforalgo with Clareti Reconciliations vendor Gresham Technologies has acquired pre- and post-trade data management specialist Inforalgo Information Technology Ltd. in an effort to to expand Gresham’s regulatory reporting capabilities, officials say. Inforalgo reports that it offers cloud-based, straight through processing (STP) solutions and automation technologies that help financial institutions with complex real-time connectivity… Read More >>
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Settles Blue Sheets Case
FINRA has censured the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC brokerage for “at least” 869 allegedly inaccurate blue sheets, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA from February 2014 to April 2017. The financial services industry’s self-regulatory authority also has fined the brokerage’s investment banking parent Morgan Stanley $875,000. FINRA says it discovered… Read More >>
Social Media & Messaging Usage Exploding: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Silicon Valley-based Hearsay Systems recently appointed financial services compliance veteran Iain Duke-Richardet as compliance strategy principal. Duke-Richardet’s mandate at Hearsay includes advising the vendor’s 100+ global financial services clients about the changing regulatory landscape. He will also be helping Hearsay’s product teams “to address new complexities as a strategic advantage to firms’ digital… Read More >>
SEC & FINRA Penalize SG Americas Securities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA, a financial services self-regulatory authority, have together fined SG Americas Securities LLC a total of $3.1 million for allegedly submitting inaccurate trade data for seven-plus years. SG Americas Securities is an investment management company that is a subsidiary of Société Générale S.A., which is a French multinational… Read More >>
Merrill Lynch & FINRA Resolve Mutual Fund Fees Case
FINRA has ordered broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. to “pay more than $7.2 million in restitution and interest to customers who incurred unnecessary sales charges and paid excess fees in connection with mutual fund transactions.” In a formulation that will be familiar to FTF News readers, the firm says: “In settling this… Read More >>
SEC & Exchanges Clash Over Market Data Order
U.S. equities exchanges are pushing back on the SEC’s sweeping order directing them and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to improve the governance structure for public, consolidated equity market data and the distribution of trade and quote data from trading venues. The order is intended to change the balance of power among trading venues… Read More >>
NYFIX Matching Now Supports SWIFT Messaging
Itiviti & ECS Partner to Bolster NYFIX Matching Itiviti, a technology and service provider to financial institutions, reports the advent of a partnership with ECS Fin, a provider of financial messaging services and transaction-processing solutions, that will add trade settlement to NYFIX Matching. The partnership, Itiviti says, will enable NYFIX Matching to process trade messages… Read More >>
Citi Fined for Allegedly Inadequate Background Checks
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, better known as FINRA, reports that it has fined Citigroup Global Markets Inc. $1.25 million for “failing to conduct timely or adequate background checks on approximately 10,400 non-registered associated persons spanning a seven-year period.” Citigroup Global Markets (CGMI) characterizes itself as a provider of “products and financing solutions for corporations,… Read More >>
