FINRA, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has penalized Worden Capital Management LLC “more than” $1.2 million in restitution, plus a fine of $350,000 on charges that the firm “excessively traded” customer accounts. Worden has agreed to pay. In addition, the firm must also “retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the relevant… Read More >>
FinCEN Urges Banks to Share More Crime Info
The director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the United States Department of the Treasury wants to make it easier for banks to share information about real and potential financial crimes. Citing a provision of the USA Patriot Act, Director Kenneth A. Blanco has put together a fact sheet and addressed the sharing… Read More >>
BlueCrest & SEC Resolve Charges of Investor Harm
BlueCrest Capital Management has settled charges via the SEC that it failed its investors by assigning its best human traders to a proprietary hedge fund while its external investors were serviced by an allegedly mediocre algorithm. The U.S. regulator reports that the hedge fund “has agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges arising from… Read More >>
Clayton to Step Down as SEC Chairman
SEC Chairman Walter Joseph “Jay” Clayton III confirmed earlier this week that he will be stepping down from his post by the end of December instead of June 2021, paving the way for President-Elect Joe Biden to appoint a successor in time for the start of the new administration. When he steps down, Clayton, a… Read More >>
CFTC Offers a Rewards System for Cooperation
The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement (DOE) is spelling out what it means when it says that a firm has been cooperative via an enforcement investigation. The goal is to let the public get a better view into how a firm maximized cooperation and minimized painful penalties. The clarity comes from a new guidance that the… Read More >>
Firms Should Fund Ops Despite Fee Woes: Q&A
(FTF News recently got time to talk with David Campbell, vice president, strategy and business development — message automation for Broadridge Financial Solutions, about the company’s win via the 2020 FTF News Technology Innovation Awards. The systems and services provider to Wall Street firms got the most votes to win the honor of Best RegTech… Read More >>
FinCEN Moves to Overhaul AML Practices
Changes are coming to banks’ the anti-money laundering practices and procedures. The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has unveiled an early look at those proposed prospective changes in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), soliciting public comment on pending regulatory amendments under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The FinCEN’s proposal is likely… Read More >>
New OCIE Team to Focus on Emerging Threats
In the wake of a pandemic lockdown, the SEC has created a small army of experts that will work with the regulator’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) to quickly react to “emerging threats and current market events” and deliver expertise and resources to the SEC regional offices. The OCIE oversees examinations of SEC-registered… Read More >>
SEC & FINRA Penalize SG Americas Securities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA, a financial services self-regulatory authority, have together fined SG Americas Securities LLC a total of $3.1 million for allegedly submitting inaccurate trade data for seven-plus years. SG Americas Securities is an investment management company that is a subsidiary of Société Générale S.A., which is a French multinational… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Resolves Spoofing & Swaps Data Cases
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reports the settlement of two enforcement orders involving Deutsche Bank. In one, the bank “resolved federal court charges stemming from alleged violations of various swap data reporting and other regulatory violations,” the CFTC says. In the second enforcement action, the CFTC “issued an administrative order against Deutsche Bank Securities Inc…. Read More >>
