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 >>
SEC & CFTC Penalize Options Clearing Corp. for $22M
The Options Clearing Corp. (OCC), regarded as the largest equity derivatives clearing organization in the world, has announced settlements with the SEC and CFTC that add up to $22 million and are based on a self-reported case of shortcomings in meeting internal efforts to lower key operational risks. The cases revolve around the implementation of… Read More >>
SEC Approves Amendments to Allow T+1 Settlement
The SEC’s commissioners voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to pass a set of amendments and new rules that would facilitate 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 vote also endorsed a compliance date of May 28,… Read More >>
UBS Securities Hit With Another FINRA Fine
UBS Securities, a subsidiary of the world’s largest private bank, is in trouble with FINRA, the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization (SRO). It’s not the first time. From the regulatory authority’s customary Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC), FINRA alleges: “From September 2015 through January 2019, UBS-S published inaccurate monthly statistics regarding execution of covered… Read More >>
State Street to Use AWS & Azure for Overhaul & Other News
Two State Street Data Centers to Move to AWS State Street Corp. has picked Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud services and data center provider while simultaneously expanding a current contract with Microsoft’s Azure cloud services in order to give clients real-time data access across State Street tools and third-party services thus streamlining investment… Read More >>
Did Genesis Global Capital & Gemini Trust Break the Law?
Crypto has faced some tough times lately, though the kids who are among its most fervent boosters keep insisting that the value of their shiny coins will rebound in 2023. Like, for sure. Faster than you can say Winklevoss! Good times for us and the brothers must be right around the corner, right? Well, it… Read More >>
CAT Data Helps SEC Build Insider Trading Case
The ambitious, big data, securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) helped SEC officials build a case in an alleged, multi-year, insider trading scheme that yielded $47 million for the accused perpetrators, according to the SEC. “The SEC staff analyzed trading using the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database to uncover [Alan]… Read More >>
DOL Updates ERISA Rules for ESG Investing
The U.S. Department of Labor is hoping that it is providing clarity for Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan fiduciaries that want to make investments based upon environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. On November 22, Labor Department officials released a final rule “by clarifying that fiduciaries may consider climate change and other environmental,… Read More >>
SEC Ratifies New Proxy-Voting Disclosure Rules
To say the least, the SEC has been busy for the past two years. Amid the flurry of new and revamped regulation was the recent adoption of “amendments to Form N-PX to enhance the information mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and certain other registered funds report about their proxy votes.” The SEC says the new rules… Read More >>