Cryptocurrency markets have been having a tough time. Bitcoin, the best known coin in the crypto piggy bank, traded at an all-time high of over $65,000 per coin November 2021, according to data compiled by Statista. But that was then. Earlier this month, Celsius Network, a crypto “bank,” filed for bankruptcy after its customers lost an… Read More >>
Davy Capital Markets Taps Torstone & Other News
Davy Capital Markets to Revamp Post-Trade Ops Dublin-based wealth manager Davy Capital Markets reports that it has become a Torstone Technology customer and will use the Torstone Platform to evolve its post-trade processing operations. “We have built and maintained our own post-trade platform for many years, and this has served us very well, as it… Read More >>
Cooperation Helps Firms Beat Financial Crime: Report
Sometimes financial crime is as local as your neighborhood shyster promising crypto riches to gullible kids or unsophisticated old folks. That can be a tragedy for the people who are conned. Other times, though, financial crime is international, requiring cooperation between nation-states or between private financial organizations and public agencies. And international financial crime can… Read More >>
19 State AGs Oppose BlackRock’s ESG Pension Push
Another anti-ESG push from the right is emerging and this time it’s taking aim at what is arguably the world’s largest asset manager. The attorney general for the Grand Canyon state Mark Brnovich earlier this month created “a coalition of 19 states that sent a letter to BlackRock Inc., calling out its practices of putting… Read More >>
DTCC’s ‘Project Ion’ Hits a Milestone & Other News
DLT System Settles 100,000 Transactions Per Day The DTCC’s alternative settlement platform based on blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT), Project Ion, has achieved a new threshold — it’s parallel processing more than 100,000 bilateral equity transactions daily and almost 160,000 transactions on peak days via the DTCC subsidiary, the Depository Trust Company (DTC). “The goal of… Read More >>
Is More Forgery the Trade-off for Digital Signatures?
Sometimes increased convenience comes with a cost. Case in point: digital signatures, which provide “significantly” easier and more efficient customer interactions. However, that increased ease apparently applies to forgers, too. Says FINRA: “The increasing use of digital documentation can significantly improve the ease and efficiency of customer interactions, but digital documentation also creates risks for… Read More >>
CFTC Ends LIBOR for IR Swaps & Other News
CFTC Amends & Ends LIBOR Usage The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a final rule ending the requirement that interest rate swaps reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in order to complete the clearing process — another milestone marking the end of the scandal-ridden LIBOR. The final rule modifies the CFTC’s… Read More >>
Two Ex-JPMorgan Traders Convicted for Market Manipulation
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois recently found two former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co., guilty of fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing via a precious metals futures contracts scheme that occurred over an eight-year period and encompassed “thousands of unlawful trading sequences,” authorities say. The two, now-convicted, ex-traders… Read More >>
Form PF Gets an Overhaul via the SEC & CFTC
Form PF is experiencing growing pains after its first decade. Those firms that are required to use Form PF to report confidential information on private funds will be providing many more details if key amendments are ultimately adopted by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) The new… Read More >>
FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley for Faulty Research Reports
FINRA, the broker-dealer industry’s self-regulator, alleges that — in the space of less than one year — Morgan Stanley “published approximately 11,000 equity research reports that included price charts with inaccurate historical stock ratings.” Eleven thousand! Oops. FINRA hit the venerable firm, which traces its history back to 1935 and the advent of the Glass-Steagall… Read More >>
