As the winter of our discontent with cryptocurrencies continues, it’s clear that changes have to be made and that the next crypto spring will either not happen at all or it will be a radical rejection of the Wild West status quo. One path is an outright ban. Some like Charlie Munger, the vice chairman… Read More >>
ION Cleared Derivatives Reels from Ransomware Attack
ION Cleared Derivatives suffered “a cybersecurity event” on Jan. 31, 2023, that set off an ongoing crisis for the global processing of cleared derivative instruments. The cyber-and-ransomware attack has gotten the attention of the CFTC, and the Futures Industry Association (FIA) and is likely to take days to resolve, according to media reports and officials…. Read More >>
FIA Wants FCMs Exempt from Repo Clearing Proposal
Walt L. Lukken, president and CEO, of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) has sent a letter to the SEC asking the regulator to exempt futures commission merchants (FCMs) from complying with proposed rules that would set new standards for covered clearing agencies for U.S. Treasury securities. “The SEC has proposed rules that would significantly expand… Read More >>
The Fed Issues a Crypto Warning & Other News
The Fed, FDIC & OCC Want More Crypto Controls Key U.S. regulatory agencies for financial services are creating processes that will require banking organizations to “engage in robust supervisory discussions” about proposed and current crypto-asset-related activities, according to a recently issued joint statement on risky crypto-assets. “By ‘crypto-asset,’ the agencies refer generally to any digital… Read More >>
‘Ghost Cattle’ Scam Creates AML Woes for FCM
CHS Hedging, a registered futures commission merchant based in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., is paying a penalty of $6.5 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to settle charges that it had inadequate anti-money laundering (AML), risk management, recordkeeping, and supervisory controls over a trading account of a cattle rancher running a $244 million “Ghost… Read More >>
BNY Mellon & Baton Bring DLT to Collateral & Other News
BNY Mellon & Baton Systems Form Partnership Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is at the heart of a new post-trade, collateral management collaboration between BNY Mellon and Baton Systems. The joint offering links Baton’s central clearing counterparty (CCP) network with BNY Mellon’s Enterprise Continuous Portfolio Optimization (ECPO) service in an effort to help mutual clients improve… Read More >>
Firms Are Behind On CFTC Rewrite Deadline: Survey
More than half of the respondents to a recent survey say that they are behind in meeting the pending reporting requirements for what is known as the “Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rewrite,” which means that they might miss the December implementation deadline. The CFTC Rewrite refers to the changes coming to the over-the-counter (OTC)… Read More >>
BNP Paribas & ISDA Test Digital Reporting to CFTC
French banking giant BNP Paribas and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) report that in a bid to transform post-trade operations for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives they “successfully implemented and tested” a way to facilitate the digital reporting of swaps data that conforms to revised rules to come from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission… Read More >>
FSB Pushes Global Regulatory Framework for Crypto
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published a proposed framework for the international regulation of crypto-asset activities. Elements of the FSB’s proposed framework include “recommendations that promote the consistency and comprehensiveness of regulatory, supervisory and oversight approaches to crypto-asset activities and markets and strengthen international cooperation, coordination and information sharing; and revised high-level recommendations for… Read More >>
Wall Street Slammed for Not Tracking Off-Channel Communication
The SEC and the CFTC have taken on major Wall Street firms and penalized them for alleged “widespread recordkeeping failures” and have gotten the firms to acknowledge their shortcomings and to pay penalties in the millions. The SEC alone has racked up $1.1 billion in penalties from 16 firms and the CFTC has settled charges… Read More >>
