As the SEC very publicly takes on major matters such as its climate disclosure requirements — the fate of which is playing out in court and in Congress — the regulator has quietly moved ahead with an increase in the rate that securities exchanges and broker-dealers pay to be regulated by the commission. “Starting on… Read More >>
SEC’s Recordkeeping Crackdown Is Just the Start
(Editor’s note: As many firms have found out, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was serious when it announced a crackdown on the recordkeeping culture of the U.S. securities industry. Nearly 30 of the industry’s top financial services firms have been accused of violating recordkeeping rules. In fact, during the SEC’s 2023 fiscal year, 25… Read More >>
Time to Step Up Your T+1 Game?
Another T+1 readiness survey has highlighted a persistent lack of preparedness among buy-side firms as the summer deadline for the T+1 transition for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico approaches. Despite the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.’s (DTCC) assurances, recent reports from vendors and banks depict concerning levels of unpreparedness among investment managers. This lack of… Read More >>
Wall Street’s Recordkeeping Culture Must Change: Q&A
(For the past two years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has cracked down on 25 of the securities industry’s top firms for violating its recordkeeping rules. In fact, during fiscal year 2023 those 25 firms paid a total of $400 million in fines and penalties. The enforcement focus on recordkeeping rules, particularly about the… Read More >>
Buy Side Seeks FX T+1 Settlement Workarounds
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) descended upon a European Commission workshop on T+1 settlement last week to urge regulators to include foreign exchange (FX) in their efforts to reduce settlement times in coordination with central banks, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and CLS Bank. One trade association in… Read More >>
How to Survive the Recordkeeping Crackdown
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) December 2021 announcement that J.P. Morgan Securities LLC had been fined $125 million for allegedly violating the agency’s recordkeeping rules amounted to a shot heard up and down Wall Street. The market regulator made clear that it took breaches of recordkeeping regulations seriously, and that the J.P. Morgan penalty… Read More >>
Prometheum Dives Into Digital Asset Securities Custody
(Prometheum Inc. will launch a digital asset securities custody platform during the first quarter of next year, according to officials at the firm. This follows recent approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers, to allow the firm to operate a special purpose broker-dealer (SPBD) that will offer custody for… Read More >>
SEC Revamps Clearing for Security-Based Swaps
It looks like there will be new rules of the road for conflicts of interest at registered clearing agencies servicing securities-based swaps. The SEC has adopted rules intended to reform boards of directors or equivalent governing bodies for these clearing agencies. However, critics of the recently approved rules — which date back to the Dodd-Frank Act… Read More >>
Regulators Unravel the Mysteries of Beneficial Ownership
First, we turn to Investopedia for a definition of “beneficial ownership.” “A beneficial owner is a person who enjoys the benefits of ownership even though the title to some form of property is in another name,” according to the Investopedia website. “It also means any individual or group of individuals who, either directly or indirectly,… Read More >>
SEC Rule to Spur Sec Lending Reporting Platforms
The SEC is changing securities lending via a new rule and that will cause securities firms to develop their own reporting platform or use a third-party reporting agent, says Kevin McNulty, managing director, head of RegTech Solutions at Equilend, a securities lending platform provider. The rule requires firms to report securities lending data to a… Read More >>
