As expected, SEC Chair Gary Gensler is taking the regulatory agency in a different direction than the most recent chairman Jay Clayton. Recent actions are pointing to a more activist environment and a new era of rulemaking. For starters, Gensler recently announced his policy team, which will be led by Heather Slavkin Corzo, policy director…. Read More >>
UBS Settles Volatility-Related ETP Case for $8M
UBS Financial Services Inc. has reached an $8 million settlement with the SEC over allegations that the firm had compliance failures via the sales of exchange-traded products (ETPs) tied to market volatility. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a broker-dealer and investment adviser that has had dual registration with the SEC since 1971, according to the… Read More >>
TIAA-CREF Subsidiary Hit With $97M Penalty
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York State Attorney General have a problem with how TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC did its business in the 2012 to 2018 period. The SEC and the NY AG allege that TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services (TC Services) failed to “adequately” disclose conflicts of interest and… Read More >>
Crypto Undermines SEC’s Mission: Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Warren Urges SEC to Consider Crypto Regs Wall Street critic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC, via a recent letter, to investigate the ways that cryptocurrency exchanges “may be undermining the SEC’s mission” as a regulator of securities trading markets. The letter from Warren, who is… Read More >>
Broadridge Buys J&J Unit to Bolster RegTech Services
Broadridge Financial Solutions is bolstering its regulatory compliance services for broker-dealers via an acquisition of the cloud-based Execution Compliance and Surveillance Service (ECS) assets of Wall Street consultancy Jordan & Jordan (J&J), officials say. J&J officials describe their ECS offering as a managed service that includes “comprehensive reviews to assess compliance with various aspects of… Read More >>
Neovest Charged with Acting as an Unregistered Broker
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMC) will be paying a $2.75 million penalty to settle SEC allegations that its Neovest subsidiary was acting as an unregistered broker-dealer for more than a decade in addition to its role as an order and execution management system (OEMS) vendor. This case marks the first time that the SEC has penalized… Read More >>
SEC Penalizes Guggenheim via Whistleblower Suppression Case
Managers at Guggenheim Securities, LLC, a New York City-based unit of Chicago-based Guggenheim Partners, a securities broker-dealer, and investment advisory, attempted to violate whistleblower rules, according to charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The result: The SEC has slapped a cease-and-desist order and a $208,912 penalty on Guggenheim Securities. Guggenheim Securities has… Read More >>
Robinhood Pays $70M to Resolve FINRA Case
Self-regulatory organization (SRO) FINRA has fined online brokerage Robinhood Financial $57 million and required $12.6 million in restitution to investors allegedly harmed by the firm, which says that it has improved its platform stability, and neither admits nor denies the charges of the settlement. “The sanctions represent the largest financial penalty ever ordered by FINRA… Read More >>
Symphony Buys Cloud9 to Jolt Voice Trading
Symphony to Unite Voice Trading with NLP Symphony, a messaging and platform provider for trading firms, reports that it is trying to “tackle true pain points in markets’ workflows” via the acquisition of trader voice/electronic communication and analytics company Cloud9 Technologies. The acquisition will help Symphony “take the lead in front office communications with new… Read More >>
FINRA Puts an Expiration Date on OATS
Self-regulatory organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is quietly putting an expiration date of September 1, 2021, on the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) reaches a new level of reliability. In typical legalese, FINRA officials released the following Regulatory Notice 21-21: “Effective September 1, 2021, FINRA is amending… Read More >>
