Cowen Division Focuses on Digital Asset Custody Cowen Inc. has officially launched the Cowen Digital division to provide a platform for trade execution and custody solutions that support digital assets traded by institutional clients, officials say. The new division, based in Stamford, Conn., offers custody solutions via Cowen’s partnership with PolySign’s Standard Custody & Trust,… Read More >>
SS&C Bolsters Its Open Protocol Service & Other Briefs
SS&C Adds ESG & Digital Asset Exposure Reporting Support The Open Protocol risk reporting service of SS&C Technologies has been improved to include digital asset and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) exposures, a step that brings the service into compliance with the ESG and digital assets reporting requirements of the Standards Board of Alternative… Read More >>
The Fed Is Starting to Think About CBDCs
The Federal Reserve is mulling what a digital currency backed by a central bank would look like. This should come as no surprise given the onset of blockchains and distributed ledger technology, and then cryptocurrencies and digital assets in many forms. They all have had an underlying driver – a disintermediation push to bring on… Read More >>
tZero’s ATS Fumbled Disclosures: SEC
The SEC and the blockchain-based, broker-dealer tZero ATS have reached a settlement in a case where the regulator alleged that the firm while trading National Market System and digitally enhanced securities failed to make timely disclosures via Form ATS before key order book data was shared with third parties. tZero ATS, which is based in… Read More >>
SWIFT Enlists SETL for Digital Asset Ops Pilot
The SWIFT financial messaging and services cooperative is exploring how it might facilitate interoperability among the distributed ledgers used to underpin the tokenized asset market, and London-based blockchain upstart vendor SETL has joined the effort. “SWIFT plans a series of experiments in Q1 2022 leveraging its trusted role as a central platform to explore the… Read More >>
Should the SEC & CFTC Create a Crypto Bureau?
Two of the major overseers of financial markets — the SEC and the CFTC — appear to be in a bureaucratic tug-of-war when it comes to the regulatory oversight of emerging digital assets, and former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is proposing that the agencies work together to co-create a crypto bureau. In addition, an… Read More >>
BofA Global Research Launches Coverage of Digital Assets
BofA Research Publishes Crypto Primer Bank of America reports the publication of an instruction and information book entitled “Digital Assets Primer: Only the first inning,” marking the start of the bank’s cryptocurrency research coverage. The bank’s head of global cryptocurrency and digital asset strategy, Alkesh Shah, led the primer’s publication, according to a BofA… Read More >>
Justice Department, SEC Focus on Stopping Crypto Crime
Two powerful extensions of the U.S. federal government – the Department of Justice and the SEC – are gearing up to counter the fraud, scams, and abuse that are the dark side of cryptocurrencies and emerging digital assets. Lisa O. Monaco, deputy Attorney General for Justice, launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) this week… Read More >>
Crypto Scams Spur Warning from Vermont Regulator
It’s not exactly Ella singing “Moonlight in Vermont.” More like one of those scary-movie shadows falling across the night sky, just before Count Dracula swoops in through the window. An exaggeration? It might not seem like one to Vermont’s would-be investors who — in just one month — reported more than $1 million in crypto-scam… Read More >>
Canadian Regulator Takes Aim at Crypto-Trading Platform
Canadian financial services regulator, the Toronto-based Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has officially charged a Seychelles-based firm with running an online digital asset trading platform that is noncompliant with the securities-trading laws of the Canadian province. The allegations could result in millions of dollars in penalties and disgorgements. The OSC is formally charging Aux Cayes Fintech… Read More >>