Nasdaq Establishes a Custody Solution for Digital Assets Nasdaq reports the launch of a new business that it says will “power the digital asset ecosystem.” The new business “underpins Nasdaq’s ambition to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation in digital assets by providing trusted and institutional-grade solutions, focused on enhanced custody, liquidity and integrity,”… Read More >>
BofA Securities Fined $5M via OTC Reporting Case
“Oops, I did it again” might work as an excuse once, maybe even twice, especially if accompanied by a twinkly smile. But 7.4 million times? It’s not that innocent, as Britney might say. Let’s all sing along with the verse: FINRA, the self-regulating authority for U.S. broker-dealers, which is overseen by the Securities and Exchange… Read More >>
Guilty Plea Reached in Crypto-Based Ponzi Scheme
Maybe someday putting your hard-earned bucks into cryptocurrencies will be as safe as putting them into a bank. That day has not yet arrived. Last week, though, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler indicated that he was in favor of Congress “handing more authority to the SEC’s sister markets regulator to oversee certain… Read More >>
Fines Drop 25% in First Half of 2022: Report
You don’t think it’s good news, do you? A study reports that, at mid-year, global enforcement penalties against financial institutions (and their employees) for not complying with anti-money laundering (AML), environmental, social and governance (ESG) and data-privacy regulations have fallen by a whopping 25 percent, compared to the same period last year. They’re down this… Read More >>
Bankrupt Firm Wins $57M Arbitration Against Alleged Fraudster
A liquidation trust for IFS Securities, Inc., a bankrupt broker-dealer based in Atlanta, Ga., has won an arbitration award of $57 million against a former IFS trader, Keith A. Wakefield, an alleged fraudster who held the post of managing director and head of fixed income trading at the firm, officials say. A key aspect of… Read More >>
Two Ex-JPMorgan Traders Convicted for Market Manipulation
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois recently found two former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co., guilty of fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing via a precious metals futures contracts scheme that occurred over an eight-year period and encompassed “thousands of unlawful trading sequences,” authorities say. The two, now-convicted, ex-traders… Read More >>
Form PF Gets an Overhaul via the SEC & CFTC
Form PF is experiencing growing pains after its first decade. Those firms that are required to use Form PF to report confidential information on private funds will be providing many more details if key amendments are ultimately adopted by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) The new… Read More >>
It’s Time to Check the T+1 Playbook
To say the least, the securities-trading industry has been a little busy since it shifted to a trading day plus two business days settlement (T+2) cycle in 2017. Yet, despite market volatility, disruptive technologies, epic political and social changes, a pandemic, soaring inflation, and an ongoing war in Europe, the industry-wide drive to an even… Read More >>
JPMS, UBS & TradeStation Resolve Identity Theft Program Woes
JPMorgan Securities (JPMS), UBS Financial Services, and TradeStation Securities have settled charges made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they failed to keep pace with the ever-changing and growing threat of identity theft. The SEC is alleging that the trio had deficient efforts to prevent customer identity theft and thus violated the “Identity… Read More >>
Don’t Forget the CFTC’s Role in the Climate Debate
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been getting a lot of attention and corporate pushback for its proposed rulemaking efforts “that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks.” While that battle is ongoing, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission… Read More >>
