In the wake of a pandemic lockdown, the SEC has created a small army of experts that will work with the regulator’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) to quickly react to “emerging threats and current market events” and deliver expertise and resources to the SEC regional offices. The OCIE oversees examinations of SEC-registered… 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 >>
OCIE Warns Private Funds Against Conflicts, Hidden Fees
A recent Risk Alert issued by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) has found “deficiencies” and possible conflicts of interest in the actions of private equity and hedge fund advisors that might have “caused investors in private funds … to pay more in fees and expenses than they should have or resulted… 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 >>
Deutsche Bank Resolves Spoofing & Swaps Data Cases
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reports the settlement of two enforcement orders involving Deutsche Bank. In one, the bank “resolved federal court charges stemming from alleged violations of various swap data reporting and other regulatory violations,” the CFTC says. In the second enforcement action, the CFTC “issued an administrative order against Deutsche Bank Securities Inc…. Read More >>
Wall Street Braces for a Safe Return
Wall Street is moving cautiously toward reopening and Monday, June 22, will serve as a milestone for when the securities industry took its first step into the new normal following a crushing pandemic that took 21,000 lives in New York City and brought the world to a halt. After three months of a pandemic lockdown,… Read More >>
Stifel Nicolaus Fined $3.6M on UIT Violation Charges
Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., an investment bank, has been fined $3.6 million by FINRA, a regulatory authority for the financial services industry, for allegedly having an inadequate supervisory system in place to detect potentially unsuitable unit investment trust (UIT) rollovers, and also for failing to provide customers with accurate information so they can make… Read More >>
CAT Helps Sell Side Boost Regulatory Ops: Q&A
(The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) was in the headlines last month as the SEC revised the CAT reporting timeline for broker-dealers due to the complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new milestones for CAT reporting in 2020 are: June 22: initial equities reporting for large broker-dealers and small broker-dealers that report to FINRA’s Order… 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 >>
Barclays, Goldmans & JPMorgan Endorse DTCC’s GTR
Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have added their names to a growing list of major financial services firms endorsing the Global Trade Repository (GTR) service of the DTCC as a way to fulfill pending regulatory reporting requirements for securities financing transactions (SFTs). French banking giant Société Générale and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) also intend… Read More >>
