President Joe Biden appears to be getting the SEC and CFTC that he wants after a bumpy transition period, and a rush of departures as the new team takes over. For starters, the Biden team has nominated Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the CFTC, to be the next chairman of the SEC. Gensler served… Read More >>
SIFMA Draws Attention to CAT Data Issues
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has had securities industry data breaches on its mind lately. First, SIFMA is calling on the SEC to temporarily halt the technical specification process for the Customer and Account Information System (CAIS) of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) because the industry group is questioning whether the data… Read More >>
CME Group & IHS Markit to Form Post-Trade JV
Joint Venture to Launch in Summer 2021 CME Group, an operator of derivatives trading venues, and IHS Markit, an information and analytics vendor, are forming a joint venture of post-trade processing and risk mitigation services that will bring together CME Group’s Traiana, TriOptima, and Reset companies with IHS Markit’s MarkitSERV. Traiana, TriOptima and Reset offer… Read More >>
ATS for Digital Securities Wins Regulatory Approval
Regulated broker-dealer Oasis Pro Markets reports that it has received approval from FINRA and the SEC for its cutting-edge digital security Alternative Trading System (ATS), which allows subscribers to trade digital/blockchain securities, and to make payments for them via digital cash such as Stablecoins. It’s important for Oasis to offer this kind of an ATS… Read More >>
Biden Team Nominates Gensler to Be SEC Chairman
Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the CFTC, has been nominated to be the next chairman of the SEC by the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Gensler served as CFTC chairman from May 26, 2009, to January 3, 2014, and oversaw an overhaul and expansion of the regulator’s control over derivatives trading, especially swaps…. Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Resolves Bribery & Fraud Probes
Deutsche Bank has signed a coordinated resolution with the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice that for $130 million resolves investigations of a commodities fraud scheme and a conspiracy to cover payments to people who facilitated bribes of foreign officials. The agreement specifies that Deutsche Bank will pay more than $120 million in fines… Read More >>
SEC Charges Crypto Fund Manager with Fraud
The SEC has taken legal action to freeze a flagship fund of cryptocurrency fund manager Virgil Capital LLC via the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, alleging that the firm’s investors are at risk via fraud and related matters. The focus of the asset freeze request is the firm’s cryptocurrency trading… Read More >>
Executive Shuffles at SEC & CFTC
SEC & CFTC Await New Chairpersons The Trump administration has named an acting chairman for the SEC — Elad L. Roisman, an SEC commissioner — as the now-former Chairman Walter Joseph “Jay” Clayton III stepped down at the end of December, six months before his slated exit in June 2021. Clayton, a Trump team appointee,… Read More >>
CAT Reporting Teaches Sell Side New Lessons
Despite the pandemic, sell-side firms in 2020 met a very challenging first-round of compliance with the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) trade data surveillance regulatory initiative, learning firsthand that gathering, cleansing, and reporting interfirm transaction data to regulators is much easier said than done. Yet firms are applying lessons learned and more to the CAT deadlines… Read More >>
Robinhood Financial Pays $65M to Settle SEC Case
Robinhood Financial LLC, a Silicon Valley brokerage company founded by two Stanford University grads, Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, will pay $65 million to settle charges that it misled its investors by making “material misrepresentations and omissions,” according to a cease-and-desist order from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Robinhood Financial “provides online and… Read More >>