Standard Chartered Joins the Saphyre Platform Standard Chartered’s capital markets division is using a platform that applies artificial intelligence (A.I.) to the onboarding process for new funds and for the maintenance of those funds, say officials at Saphyre, which is the name of the platform and the financial technology vendor that created it. The patent-approved… Read More >>
Fidelity Gives a Nod to Bitcoins & Other News
Fidelity Launches a 401(k) Plan for Digital Assets Fidelity Investments will allow individuals to allocate a portion of their retirement savings to Bitcoin if their employers also agree to allow the cryptocurrency to be part of a 401(k) plan, officials say. To facilitate this change, Fidelity has launched the “workplace Digital Assets Account (DAA)” 401(k)… Read More >>
State Pensions Face Anti-ESG Backlash
Now that Earth Day has come and gone again, it might be an appropriate time to consider the right-wing conservative backlash against public pension funds and their ESG investing. “ESG,” as FTF News readers know, stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance.” ESG is meant to ensure that boardrooms and shareholders consider factors beyond simple fluctuations… Read More >>
WFE Paper Spotlights Human Rights Aspects of ESG
The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), an industry group for securities exchanges and central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs), has published a briefing paper that focuses on human rights protections and spotlights the need for definitions of “responsible business” and human rights protections — key social aspects of ESG investing. The paper points out that “while… Read More >>
Goldman Sachs Veteran Joins Bosonic & Other News
Bosonic Hires Paddy Boyle from Goldman Sachs Bosonic, which characterizes itself as a “decentralized Financial Market Infrastructure (dFMI) business with a real-time clearing and settlement service for crypto and digital assets,” reports that Goldman Sachs veteran Paddy Boyle has joined the firm as its global head of clearing and derivatives. Boyle, an industry veteran, is… Read More >>
PCAOB Helps Auditors Sort Out Russian Sanctions
The global flow of economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine is ongoing and getting more complex. To help broker-dealers and their auditors stay on top of sanctions and their impacts, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently released a “Spotlight” guide on the subject: “Auditing Considerations Related to the Invasion of… Read More >>
Crypto-Token Securities Need to Be Regulated: Gensler
The wild, wild west for crypto-tokens could be ending as SEC Chair Gary Gensler has asked SEC and CFTC staff to look into how these innovative instruments should be registered and regulated by the SEC. Gensler made his priorities clear during a speech earlier this week that focused on cryptocurrency markets. Among other issues, his… Read More >>
SEC Gets Serious About Cybersecurity Risks
We know that Vladimir Putin commands an army of hackers that he’s unleashed before — to interfere in American elections and to spread social-media disinformation. The current media and intelligence-services consensus is that — in the wake of the multiple economic sanctions imposed on him and his henchmen over the war against Ukraine — he’s… Read More >>
Swap Dealer Fined $3M for Alleged Disclosure Failures
A London-based swap dealer, ED&F Man Capital Markets, Ltd. (ED&F Man) has reached a $3.25 million settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that ends a case involving charges of reporting woes, supervisory failures, and conflicts of interest that underscore the pitfalls securities firms face when trading via multiple jurisdictions. ED&F Man officials signed… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Securities Settles Best Execution Case for $2M
FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for broker-dealers, has hit Deutsche Bank Securities with a $2 million fine. The reason: FINRA alleges that Deutsche Bank Securities did not provide its customers with the supervisory “best execution” that FINRA’s rule 5310 calls for. Industry veterans will tell you that there was a time when regulators would have… Read More >>
