Is Sam Bankman-Fried (a.k.a. SBF) the Gen X Bernie Madoff? Or maybe he’s the Hairball-Grinch who stole Christmas? Of course, we won’t know for sure that he’s allegedly a con artist and a crook of epic proportions until he’s had his day in court. Maybe he’s just a kid who believed his own hype and… Read More >>
STP Investment Services Acquires WealthSite & Other News
STP to Add WealthSite’s Accounting Engine STP Investment Services, an investment-operations service provider, reports the acquisition of WealthSite. WealthSite is a company that “provides a customized accounting, portfolio management, reporting and analytics platform to single and multi-family offices, traditional wealth advisory firms and money managers serving ultra-high-net-worth (UNHW) clients,” STP officials say in a prepared… Read More >>
Danske Bank Pays $2B to Settle Fraud Charges
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that it has filed charges of fraud against Danske Bank, a multinational financial services corporation with headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, “for misleading investors about its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program in its Estonian branch and failing to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies.” Danske Bank… Read More >>
War & Inflation Are Top Risks for 2023: Survey
Traditionally, the approach of a new year means it’s time to dust off the crystal ball. The FTF News proprietary orb is in the shop for some well-earned polishing, but never fear. There is no better prognosticator than the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), which has unveiled its annual Systemic Risk Barometer Survey: 2023 Risk… Read More >>
TP ICAP Approved for Crypto-Asset Exchange Services
Interdealer broker TP ICAP has won regulatory approval to be a provider of crypto-asset exchange services via its wholesale marketplace for spot crypto-assets, dubbed Fusion Digital Assets. This is a bid to provide “a credible infrastructure” for institutions thinking about allocating capital to wholesale digital asset markets, officials say. The approval comes at a time… Read More >>
S&P Settles Conflict of Interest Case for $2.5M
While gnawing on that leftover drumstick, you might want to consider whether or not your holiday turkey was glazed with a “calculation error.” The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged S&P Global Ratings (SPGR), a “nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) registered with the Commission, with violating conflict of interest rules designed to prevent… Read More >>
Firms Are Behind On CFTC Rewrite Deadline: Survey
More than half of the respondents to a recent survey say that they are behind in meeting the pending reporting requirements for what is known as the “Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rewrite,” which means that they might miss the December implementation deadline. The CFTC Rewrite refers to the changes coming to the over-the-counter (OTC)… Read More >>
Wedbush Fined for Misreporting Bond Data to Clients
With apologies to the bodacious Miss Tina Turner, who was singing about Nutbush, her hometown, in 1973, and to Wedbush Securities, a member of FINRA since way back in 1955, the Questions of the Week are these: How did a firm with Wedbush’s experience come to “negligently” misrepresent on “monthly account statements that it sent… Read More >>
BondWave Bolsters Liquidity Access to ICE Bonds & Other News
BondWave Builds New Links to ICE Bonds Fixed income solutions vendor BondWave reports that has much more tightly integrated its Effi Markets with the transaction platforms of ICE Bonds, part of the Intercontinental Exchange, so that Effi users can have better access to liquidity pools and execution protocols. “BondWave and ICE Bonds have enjoyed a… Read More >>
Succession Plans Will Prevent Chaos & Failure: FINRA
Here’s a good idea: Plan for life events, whether expected or unexpected. That’s the helpful word from FINRA, the broker-dealer sector’s own regulatory authority. “Succession planning can benefit customers, member firms and registered representatives,” the regulatory authority declares in its recent Regulatory Notice 22-23, which “discusses these benefits, as well as common types of succession… Read More >>
