FIS Ventures to Fund ‘Flutterwave’ Financial technology specialist vendor FIS reports that its new “corporate venture investment division” FIS Ventures has launched “an effort to invest a target of $150 million in promising fintech startups over the next three years.” The first FIS Ventures investment is in Flutterwave, a Lagos, Nigeria and San Francisco-based… Read More >>
Regulators Move to Refine Volcker Rule Requirements
Federal regulators overseeing financial markets are taking major steps to refine the Dodd-Frank Act’s Volcker Rule restricting proprietary trading so that it has a narrower focus. Since the recovery from the Great Recession, the rule, inspired by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has held back banks from proprietary trading and… Read More >>
Elizabeth Warren Focuses on Private Equity’s ‘Loopholes’
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is leading an effort to change how the private equity industry operates via a bill recently presented to the U.S. Congress that intends to close so-called “loopholes” that help private equity firms score major rewards from investments but without risk and little regard for the human cost of such enterprises…. Read More >>
MEMX Picks Instinet Veteran to Be Its CEO
The Members Exchange’s (MEMX), a proposed challenger to incumbent exchange companies, has chosen industry veteran Jonathan Kellner to be its new CEO. Kellner’s resume includes his four years as CEO of agency-only broker Instinet. In 2014, Kellner was promoted to the post of CEO of Instinet, the equity trading arm of parent company Nomura Group,… Read More >>
Commerzbank, CFTC Settle Swap Ops Case for $12M
Commerzbank A.G. and the CFTC have agreed to settle allegations that the German bank failed to properly supervise its swap dealer activities, and then made misleading statements and material omissions to the CFTC about swap operations and compliance with key laws and regulations. A recently issued CFTC order compels Commerzbank, provisionally registered with the regulator… Read More >>
Federal Reserve Wants New Framework for Big Banks
The Federal Reserve Board is proposing a new regulatory framework that it says will “more closely match the regulations for large banking organizations with their risk profiles.” The new proposed framework would “reduce compliance requirements for firms with less risk while maintaining more stringent requirements for firms with more risk,” according to a Fed statement…. Read More >>
CFTC’s Whistleblower Awards Total More than $45 Million
Whistleblower Program Experiences High-Volume Response The CFTC has handed out more than $45 million in multiple whistleblower awards, reflecting the higher volumes and greater complexity of incoming whistleblower submissions, officials say. In fact, the regulator last month acknowledged “an award of approximately $30 million to one whistleblower and the first award was made by the… Read More >>
Commissioner Piwowar Announces His Exit from the SEC
SEC Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar, who frequently opposed parts of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reforms, is stepping down from his post after nearly five years of representing many of the concerns from Republicans about the securities industry. In a statement dated May 7, Piwowar announced that he has sent a letter to President Trump about his… Read More >>
Is Your Job to Make Your Job Obsolete?
Sometimes you are awakened by a concept that is so simple yet so stunning. Such was the case with the opening remarks of industry veteran Ted Leveroni, now a principal at DerivProduct, who kicked off the DerivOps conference last month in Chicago. Over the years, Leveroni has been chief commercial officer for DTCC — Euroclear… Read More >>
CFTC Chairman Unveils Swaps Reform Agenda 2.0
Swaps regulatory reform is the focus of a recent white paper/report, “Swaps Regulation Version 2.0: An Assessment of the Current Implementation of Reform and Proposals for Next Steps,” co-authored by CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo and CFTC Chief Economist Bruce Tuckman. The report was unveiled at the annual meeting of the International Swaps and Derivatives… Read More >>
