Bittrex and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appear to be heading to court over the regulator’s allegations that the crypto asset trading platform Bittrex, Inc., and its co-founder and former CEO operated an unregistered national securities exchange, brokerage, and clearing agency. Bittrex, Inc.’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH has also been accused of “failing… Read More >>
Time to Rethink A.I.?
You don’t need artificial intelligence (A.I.) to predict what the economy is up to, or the perils of global climate change, or even what the local weather will be like next weekend. But that does appear to be where we are headed. Don’t just take it from FTF News. Ask Jamie Dimon, the chief executive… Read More >>
TNS Buys BornTec’s Co-Location Services & Other News
TNS Adds to Global Connectivity Footprint Transaction Network Services (TNS) has acquired BornTec’s managed hosting and co-location business, which will add to TNS’ global connectivity footprint and bolster previous TNS acquisitions, officials say. The latest acquisition was completed on March 21, 2023. The BornTec co-location acquisition adds to TNS’s global deployment of Layer 1 ultra-low… Read More >>
Reporter’s Notebook: Merrill Lynch & the FX Fees Case
When crypto companies allegedly scam their clients, it’s often a disaster for the kids and old folks who are convinced to “invest.” But we expect better, much better, from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a pillar of the financial services world. That’s one reason it’s troubling to learn that the U. S. Securities and… Read More >>
NFA Adopts Rule Governing Digital Asset Commodities
The National Futures Association (NFA), a self-regulatory organization, is focusing its regulatory authority on digital asset commodity activities by adopting rules that set “anti-fraud, just and equitable principles of trade, and supervision requirements” for members and associates of the NFA. The scope of the newly adopted NFA Compliance Rule 2-51 “is currently limited to Bitcoin… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Settles Sanctions Violations Case for $97.8M
Wells Fargo Bank has settled a self-reported case of sanctions violations with two U.S. agencies — the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Federal Reserve — and will pay a total of $97.8 million to resolve violations of economic sanctions against Iran, Syria, and Sudan. The settlement with… Read More >>
BNP Paribas & Clearwater Partnership Yields Combined Services
Custodian BNP Paribas Securities Services and service provider Clearwater Analytics have formed a partnership that is targeting asset owners by combining custody services with investment accounting support from Clearwater, officials say. The gain for potential clients of both is that BNPPSS and Clearwater have coupled their offerings to ensure a preconfigured set-up for all the… Read More >>
SWIFT Tests API for CBDCs & Other News
SWIFT’s CBDC Connector Shows ‘Potential’ Officials at SWIFT, the global financial messaging services and systems cooperative, say that 18 central and commercial banks foresee “clear potential and value” in a connector for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) based upon an application programming interface (API) that is SWIFT’s experimental solution for interlinking CBDCs. SWIFT reports that… 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 >>
