JPMorgan will pay a combined total of $367 million to the SEC and the CFTC to settle charges that key subsidiaries had allegedly failed to disclose conflicts of interest to clients, and which the bank says were unintentional acts. In the SEC case, the regulator reports that two JPMorgan wealth management subsidiaries have agreed to… Read More >>
FCA Threadneedle Fine Highlights Trading Control Flaws
After providing inaccurate information to a U.K. regulator about its fixed income trading processes in 2011, U.K.-based Threadneedle Asset Management Ltd. fell prey to a fraudulent trade made via its emerging markets debt desk, according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which fined the firm £6,038,504 ($8.9 million) on Dec. 15, 2015, according to the… Read More >>
Grant Thornton Pays $4.5 Million to Settle SEC Case
A recent case involving auditor Grant Thornton and two of its affiliates is making it clear that the SEC is watching auditing firms closely and underscoring the need for securities firms to independently verify the data they get from them. In this latest legal action, the SEC’s findings led to Grant Thornton admitting wrongdoing and… Read More >>
Can Banks Really Create a Culture of Compliance?
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) recent decision to fine Barclays a record £72 million ($108.3 million) for the alleged poor handling of financial crime risks will likely serve to reinforce the public perception of greedy bankers. But have financial institutions made any progress in developing a more positive culture in the new regulatory era of… Read More >>
Virtus Settles AlphaSector Case with the SEC for $16.5M
Investment management firm Virtus Investment Advisers is paying a total of $16.5 million to settle a case with the SEC, which alleges that the firm misled mutual fund investors among others via advertisements that allegedly reported false historical performance data about AlphaSector, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) portfolio strategy. The charges against the Hartford, Conn.-based firm… Read More >>
SEC Collects $5.8M from DBRS for Monitoring Woes
U.S. regulator, the SEC has charged credit rating agency DBRS Inc. with misrepresenting its surveillance methodology for ratings of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities and re-securitized real estate mortgage investment conduits during a three-year period. An SEC investigation found DBRS “misrepresented [that] it would monitor on a monthly basis each of its outstanding ratings of U.S…. Read More >>
SEC Enforcement Actions Jump 7 Percent in 2015
The SEC’s Enforcement Division reports that it had a seven percent increase in cases for fiscal year 2015 over the previous year and is breaking ground in several facets of the securities industry because of data and quantitative analytics and the help of the regulator’s other divisions. “The Enforcement Division’s leveraging of data, quantitative analytics… Read More >>
Crédit Agricole to Pay $787 Million for Subsidiaries’ Sanctions Violations
The Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CACIB), a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole S.A. (CASA), is facing a combined payment to U.S. authorities of $787.3 million for violations of sanctions prohibiting U.S. dollar transactions as specified by federal and related New York state laws. In addition, CACIB, headquartered in Paris, has agreed to forfeit $312… Read More >>
Barclays to Settle RMBS Lawsuits for $325 Million
Barclays has reached a $325 million settlement with a U.S. government agency that regulates federal credit unions, bringing to an end a lawsuit against the Barclays Capital investment banking subsidiary over the sale of allegedly faulty residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) to corporate credit unions that allegedly failed as a result of the transactions. The agreement… Read More >>
The SEC’s ‘Broken Windows’ Policy
Given some of the recent actions by the SEC, it’s reasonable to ask if the regulator may be enforcing a kind of “broken windows policing” effort. When put into practice, the broken windows theory as applied to non-Wall Street crime by police officers involves acting upon “small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping,”… Read More >>
