The Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) has settled with the SEC over allegations that the ratings company had problems with the internal controls governing the rating of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and of collateralized loan obligation combination notes (CLO Combo Notes). KBRA has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle the charges. “KBRA… Read More >>
Credit Suisse Securities Settles Another Blue-Sheets Case
Are blue sheets difficult to file correctly? The question arises because Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has been fined $600,000 for “failure to submit to the [Securities and Exchange] Commission true and complete data in response to Commission staff electronic blue sheets (‘EBS’) requests, resulting in the reporting of EBS that was incomplete or deficient.”… Read More >>
Start-Up MEMX Launches Live Equities Trading
Members Exchange Trades in Seven Symbols A securities exchange start-up, the Members Exchange (MEMX) launched live trading via the U.S. equity market on Sept. 21, the first phase of MEMX’s rollout schedule. “A quick update on our first day of trading,” wrote Jonathan Kellner, CEO of MEMX, in a blog posting. “We executed our first… Read More >>
Interactive Brokers Settles SARs & AML Cases for $38M
Interactive Brokers (IB) will be writing several checks and money orders as it pays $38 million in penalties to three industry regulators for alleged failures in filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), and anti-money laundering (AML) controls — a clear sign that authorities are cracking down on the obligation to monitor suspicious activity. The SEC is… Read More >>
New OCIE Team to Focus on Emerging Threats
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 >>
UBS Pays $10M to Resolve Bond-Flipping Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that UBS Financial Services Inc. will pay more than $10 million to “resolve charges that it circumvented the priority given to retail investors in certain municipal bond offerings.” For four years, according to the SEC’s allegations, UBS “improperly allocated bonds intended for retail customers to parties known… Read More >>
$96M of Luxury Loot Sought via 1MDB Scandal
The United States Justice Department (DoJ) reports that it has filed civil forfeiture complaints aimed at the “recovery of approximately $96 million in assets allegedly associated with an international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.” Those assets include “luxury real estate in Paris, artwork by Claude… 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 >>
