ACA Group (ACA), a provider of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions to the financial services industry, has acquired Encore Compliance (Encore), an A.I. compliance software solutions vendor, officials say. “This acquisition enhances ACA’s Managed Services suite of people, processes, and technology, adding A.I.-enabled surveillance for expert network chaperoning and research calls to help asset… Read More >>
SEC Kicks Off a T+1 Compliance Sweep
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun detailed examinations of industry participants to ensure compliance with its new T+1 trade settlement and recordkeeping requirements. Both investment advisors and broker-dealers are being audited to provide information on their policies, procedures, and records related to trade allocation, confirmation, and affirmation processes to the SEC’s Division… Read More >>
FINRA Explores Remote Inspections via Pilot Program
Nearly one-quarter or 22 percent of FINRA member firms have volunteered to participate in a pilot program that would allow them to complete their inspection obligations “without an on-site visit” from a FINRA official, according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers. FINRA notes that 741 firms are participating in the initial pilot, and… Read More >>
FIA Updates Best Practices for Credit Risk Mitigation
Post-trade controls, monitoring, and data collection are essential to mitigate the risk involved in the automation of exchange-traded futures, options, and centrally cleared derivatives. With the help of updated best practices, these controls can work well in conjunction with pre-trade controls to prevent credit events or unintended transactions. So says the Futures Industry Association (FIA)… Read More >>
Wedbush Forms Cross-Border Alliance to South Korea
Wedbush Financial Services (WFS), a financial services holding company and parent company of Wedbush Securities Inc., has signed a strategic alliance with Hana Securities (Hana), the securities firm of Hana Financial Group, the holding company for Korean institution Hana Bank, officials say. The alliance will yield a new investment channel for Wedbush Securities clients, says… Read More >>
FINRA Warns of Post-CrowdStrike Secondary Attacks
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) officials have issued a warning that the global disruption caused by the CrowdStrike Outage could be followed by secondary attacks. “In connection to the widespread disruption, member firms should be aware they may experience secondary attacks from cyber criminals seeking to leverage this incident to carry out social engineering and… Read More >>
Apex Fintech Launches Platform for Building Investment Infrastructures
Apex Fintech Solutions is launching an investment infrastructure platform, dubbed Apex Ascend, that has been designed to help clients improve their capability to “operate efficiently and better navigate risk on a global scale,” officials say. The cloud-native platform offers built-in tools and data to help firms create, integrate, scale, and operate globally and offers key… Read More >>
Achieve T+1 Harmony with U.S. Before E.U.: Task Force
The investment management industry believes that the U.K. being out of sync with the T+1 settlement of the U.S. is a bigger problem than with the European Union, and the U.K. needs to get its “skates on” with implementation. That’s according to Andrew Douglas, chair of the U.K. Accelerated Settlement Task Force (AST), which advocates… Read More >>
Did FX Workarounds Help Firms Get to T+1?
The foreign exchange (FX) industry has been tight-lipped since North America transitioned to a shorter settlement cycle a little over a month ago. However, more light is being shed on the operational workarounds buy-side firms deployed to meet the deadline. Though concerns about FX liquidity and pricing prior to the transition have not necessarily materialized,… Read More >>
ANNA, DTIF & GDF to Build Links to Digital Assets
The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTI Foundation) want to build “a strong foundation” that links traditional and digital finance through a new partnership with Global Digital Finance (GDF), officials say. The GDF is a non-profit association of member firms, which offers “an open innovation platform for advocating… Read More >>
