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 >>
Northern Trust Launches Another Umbrella Trust
Northern Trust has launched an umbrella trust, dubbed the Datum One Series Trust, that it will offer to asset managers that would prefer to focus on distribution and investment goals, and let the custodian manage the infrastructure and back-office services. The new offering will include operational infrastructure support services via an integrated model, says Barbara… Read More >>
CME’s Eurodollar Options Floor to Reopen in August
CME to Add Safety Measures to Options Floor CME Group reports that it will reopen its Eurodollar options trading pit on August 10, 2020. In advance of that reopening date, the company intends to “reconfigure the pit to meet social distancing standards and put additional safety measures in place,” CME officials say in a statement. “All… Read More >>
SEC Probe Spurs Firm to Revamp MNPI Policies
Private equity firm Ares Management is settling with the SEC over charges that it lacked proper policies and procedures to oversee the handling of “material nonpublic information [MNPI],” a.k.a. insider information, according to the regulator’s order. The case revolves around the firm’s representation on a board of directors “of a listed issuer” in the Ares investment… Read More >>
Morningstar Credit Ratings Settles Conflict-of-Interest Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports that it has settled with New York-based credit-rating agency Morningstar Credit Ratings, which it charged with violating a long-standing conflict-of-interest rule designed to separate a firm’s credit ratings and analysis from its sales and marketing. Morningstar Credit Ratings, a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., neither admits nor denies the… Read More >>
