Market makers working in U.S. listed options markets say that while they have seen significant structural improvements such as exchanges improving risk protection capabilities, “the proliferation of options exchanges and inherent fragmentation of liquidity” have become major challenges, according to a new report from Burton-Taylor International Consulting. Liquidity fragmentation is the result of the proliferation of exchanges… Read More >>
FINRA Spotlights Emerging Issues for 2019
Risk monitoring and examination priorities are the focus of the annual letter produced recently by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). That annual FINRA letter highlights new priorities for 2019 and identifies “areas of ongoing concern.” The regulatory authority specifies that the 2019 letter’s “focus on materially new issues may help firms better identify those… Read More >>
Indus Valley Partners Targets CAT Regulatory Reporting
Financial technology vendor Indus Valley Partners (IVP) has launched a module for its IVP Raptor regulatory reporting platform that targets buy-side firms required to comply with FINRA’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) initiative to collect every order, cancellation, modification and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and options transacted via U.S. financial markets. The SEC-approved CAT… Read More >>
Merrill Lynch Fined Over Allegations via IPO Sales
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reports that it has fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. for allegedly “improperly selling shares” in initial public offerings, or IPOs, to “industry insiders, including its employees’ immediate family members and customers who were brokers at other brokerage firms.” The firm, which offers broker-dealer and investment advisory… Read More >>
FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $10M on AML Charges
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has charged that Morgan Stanley’s anti-money laundering (AML) program was beset with supervisory failures for more than five years. Those failures allegedly violated the Bank Secrecy Act and have resulted in a formal censure and a $10 million FINRA fine. The various charges encompass the period from 2011 to… Read More >>
CAT Moves Closer to Becoming a Reality
The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) is approaching a milestone on Nov. 15 as major self-regulatory organizations (SROs) and exchanges are slated to start sending quote, order, trade and related information to the CAT central repository as specified under the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Plan (CAT NMS Plan). As many will recall,… Read More >>
FINRA Alleges LPL Failed to Submit 400+ SARs
Boston-based LPL Financial has been fined $2.75 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on charges that, among other problems, its anti-money laundering (AML) efforts failed to assess approximately 400 incidents that should have been investigated as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). In addition, FINRA alleges that LPL “failed to file or amend registered representatives’… Read More >>
Broker Pleads Guilty to ‘Pump & Dump’ Scheme
Michael Morris, a registered broker and managing director of New York-based Halcyon Cabot Partners, Ltd., has pled guilty in Brooklyn federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud for his participation in a 2013 $86 million market manipulation scheme involving the publicly traded company CodeSmart Holdings, Inc. Morris faces a maximum of… Read More >>
FINRA Charges Interactive Brokers with Regulation SHO Violations
Electronic execution brokerage firm Interactive Brokers has been fined $5.5 million by FINRA, a self-regulatory organization (SRO), for allegedly violating the rules for short sale practices — covered by the SEC’s Regulation SHO —and for supervisory failures from July 2012 through June 2015. “Regulation SHO established ‘locate’ and ‘close-out’ standards that are primarily aimed at… Read More >>
FINRA to Overhaul Registration & Disclosure Systems
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, reports that an overhaul of its registration and disclosure programs is beginning. That overhaul specifically includes the central registration depository (CRD), which is the licensing and registration system that FINRA operates for the U.S. securities industry, and which provides the basis for BrokerCheck, the online portal where investors and… Read More >>
