SWIFT’s CBDC Connector Shows ‘Potential’ Officials at SWIFT, the global financial messaging services and systems cooperative, say that 18 central and commercial banks foresee “clear potential and value” in a connector for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) based upon an application programming interface (API) that is SWIFT’s experimental solution for interlinking CBDCs. SWIFT reports that… Read More >>
Riding Out the Ripple Effects of the Bank Failures
The rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and the troubles swirling around First Republic Bank, which offers private banking and wealth management services, are technically happening separately from global securities markets. But actual regulatory and operational impacts and the contagion of panic are causing real ripple effects upon regulators, other banks, and… Read More >>
Swiss Central Bank Throws Credit Suisse a Lifeline
Credit Suisse Group will be borrowing $54 billion from the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the central bank for Switzerland, in an effort to stabilize its fiscal situation, which began spinning out of control at about the same time as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the U.S. collapsed. These parallel but essentially unrelated events have together… Read More >>
FINRA Fines Webull $3M on Customer Approval Woes
Exercising “reasonable due diligence” before approving customers for options trading: How hard is that? For that matter, how hard is it to maintain a supervisory system “reasonably designed to identify and respond to customer complaints?” And what about “not reporting certain written customer complaints to FINRA as required?” Taken together, those are the $3 million… Read More >>
Trading Technologies Buys AxeTrading & Other News
TT Boosts Fixed Income Outreach Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT) reports that its multi-asset class expansion got a boost via its acquisition of London-based AxeTrading, a provider of fixed income trading solutions. The acquisition for an undisclosed amount is a move “into full coverage of corporate, government, municipal and emerging market bonds as well as… Read More >>
Firms Are Looking for T+1 Accelerators: Q&A
(Editor’s note: Last month, the SEC passed a set of amendments and new rules that make possible an industry-wide move from the current trading day plus two (T+2) settlement cycle to the shorter, one-day, T+1 time frame for U.S. equity markets. The SEC also endorsed a compliance date of May 28, 2024, for the start… Read More >>
The Mormons Settle with the SEC for $5M
A settlement between the SEC and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment management company got lost in the media shuffle amid the overshadowing crypto-related enforcement stories. Late last month, the SEC announced it had settled with Ensign Peak Advisers, a non-profit entity operated by the Mormon Church, and with the… Read More >>
Russia’s FATF Membership Is Suspended
The Russian Federation has had its membership in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suspended because of its invasion of Ukraine — launched a year ago — and Janet L. Yellen, secretary of the U.S. Treasury is commending the move. In response, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said the move was… Read More >>
Treasury Working Group to Explore a Digital Dollar
A working group consisting of key U.S. financial services authorities will be gathering over the coming months to investigate “an initial set of findings and recommendations” toward a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or “digital dollar” for the U.S., says Nellie Liang, under secretary for domestic finance for the Treasury Department. The CBDC Working Group… Read More >>
CFTC Mandates UPIs for Swaps Records & Reporting
Without much fanfare, the CFTC in mid-February ordered registered entities and swap counterparties to use the unique product identifiers (UPIs) supplied by the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) for swaps in the credit, equity, foreign exchange, and interest rate asset classes to bolster transparency and compliance with CFTC swap recordkeeping and reporting requirements. In addition, the… Read More >>
