FINRA Fills Multiple Governance Posts The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports several changes to its board of governors. Stephen M. Cutler, executive vice president and vice chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co., has been elected as a large firm governor, one of three on the board. Stephen A. Kohn, president and CEO, Stephen A. Kohn &… Read More >>
Liquidnet Names Head of Technology for EMEA
Liquidnet Creates New Technology Role Liquidnet reports the appointment of Patrick Strobel as head of technology for EMEA, which the institutional trading network calls a “newly formed role.” Stroebel joins Liquidnet’s global technology group, reporting to Bob Garrett, head of technology. Strobel will be responsible for “building out Liquidnet’s strategic IT architecture in EMEA… Read More >>
CFTC Settles Spoofing Charges Against Japan’s Largest Bank
The CFTC has settled its charges against the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) with a relatively small $600,000 penalty. Those charges accused the bank of “engaging in multiple acts of spoofing in a variety of futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, including futures contracts based on United… Read More >>
Senate Confirms Giancarlo as Next CFTC Chairman
The CFTC has a nearly full slate of commissioners with the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote late yesterday to promote J. Christopher Giancarlo from acting chairman to chairman, and to confirm Brian D. Quintenz, a Republican, and Rostin Behnam, a Democrat, as new commissioners. Quintenz will join the CFTC from Saeculum Capital Management, “where he is… Read More >>
Cryptocurrency Transactions & Operations Start to Emerge
Malta-based Exante, an online foreign exchange, futures, and stocks retail brokerage, has added five cryptocurrency assets onto its terminal -– Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero, Zcash, and Ripple. They join its Bitcoin instruments, which were the first regulated cryptocurrency to make their debut four years ago. The global market for cryptocurrency-based instruments is rapidly gaining ground as… Read More >>
Trump Team Acts to Fill CFTC Vacancy
The White House has nominated a New Jersey Democrat to fill a commissioner vacancy on the five-person CFTC, which has been operating with only two members for some time. The nomination requires U.S. Senate confirmation. The nominee, Russ Behnam, is senior counsel to Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow, ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, according… Read More >>
CFTC & SEC Use Videos to Humanize Their Work
The two major government regulators for U.S. markets, the SEC and CFTC, are reaching out via new videos that attempt to make what they do more relevant to mainstream investors, which would be many Americans. It’s encouraging that they are trying to humanize what they do although videos about potential audits and exams might make… Read More >>
CFTC Settles Wash Sales Charges Against Trader & Firm
The CFTC reports that it has simultaneously filed and settled charges against Chicago-based Rosenthal Collins Capital Markets (now known as DV Trading), and one of its former traders. RCCM is accused of “engaging in illegal wash sales in order to generate rebates of exchange fees based upon increased trading volumes,” according to the CFTC, which… Read More >>
Are FCMs Going to Survive?
(Editor’s note: Are futures commission merchants (FCMs) headed for extinction? It’s a fair question as the number of them, 64 as of this past March, has dropped by more than 50 percent over the past 15 years — a key point made in a special report authored by Hester Peirce, director of the financial markets… Read More >>
Sharon Bowen to Step Down Early from CFTC
Calling it “a bittersweet decision,” CFTC Commissioner Sharon Y. Bowen, one of only two members of what’s supposed to be a five-member body, announced last week that she will be leaving her post before her term is up as a way to hasten the process for filling commission vacancies. “My hope is thus that by… Read More >>
