Wells Fargo Advisors, the St. Louis, Missouri-based broker-dealer unit of the well-known stagecoach banking brand, will pay seven million dollars to settle SEC charges that it failed to “file at least 34 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in a timely manner between April 2017 and October 2021.” Those suspicious activity reports that were not filed included… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Fined $2.25M for Document Storage Woes
Ironic, isn’t it, that just when cryptography enthusiasts are touting the capability of the blockchain to memorialize complex sequences of transactions, major units of a big bank find themselves in trouble over their own record-keeping? FINRA, the broker-dealer industry’s self-regulatory authority, charges Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network — two units… Read More >>
Elizabeth Warren Asks FINRA to Probe Robinhood
Robinhood’s Role in the Gamestop Frenzy Under Scrutiny Wall Street critic and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has called on self-regulatory organization FINRA to “respond to Robinhood’s role in recent market volatility, its decision to cut off customers’ trading, and the broader concerns about market fairness that these events represent.” Warren is referring to discount… Read More >>
Supervisory Failures Alleged in Wells Fargo Annuity Switches
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports that Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, two units of the San Francisco-based, multinational financial services company, will pay more than $2 million on charges of “supervisory violations related to variable annuity switches.” The Wells Fargo units will pay an additional $1.4 million… Read More >>
DataRobot Taps Rob Hegarty for General Manager Post
Hegarty to Head Financial Markets and Fintech Unit DataRobot reports that Rob Hegarty has been appointed its general manager of financial markets and fintech. Hegarty, a financial technology veteran, will lead DataRobot’s expansion in the capital markets and fintech industries by “empowering even more organizations to leverage machine learning and become AI-driven,” according to the… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Settles RMBS Case with Justice Department
The U.S. Justice Department reports that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., the fourth largest in the U.S. by assets, and several of its affiliates will pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion, “based on the bank’s alleged origination and sale of residential mortgage loans that it knew contained misstated income information and did not meet the… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Readies New London Headquarters
Wells Fargo to Move 1,200 Into London HQ Wells Fargo & Co. recently completed its purchase of 33 King William Street (formerly known as 33 Central) in the City of London from the international real estate developer HB Reavis, bank officials say. The office development effort, announced in July 2016, marks the “first international real… Read More >>
Wells Fargo Broker-Dealers Pay Restitution in ETP Case
Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network have been ordered to pay $3.4 million in restitution to clients that were allegedly misled via “unsuitable recommendations of volatility-linked exchange-traded products (ETPs),” according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for broker-dealers. On a Wells Fargo website, the volatility-linked ETPs… Read More >>
Why the Wells Fargo Mess Makes Wall Street Nervous
My guess is that the dizzying fall from grace for Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf is making some Wall Street executives a little nervous, especially if they have something to hide. To recap, after a scandal broke about the bank setting up fraudulent consumer accounts, the Wells Fargo board of directors decided this… Read More >>
CFTC Fines Wells Fargo $400K on Faulty LTR Charges
The CFTC reports that it has ordered Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. to pay a $400,000 civil monetary penalty for “failing to comply with its obligations to submit accurate large trader reports (LTRs) for physical commodity swap positions.” The bank, a provisionally registered swap dealer since 2012, neither admitted nor denied the CFTC’s findings, but agreed… Read More >>