Just one week after she was appointed, Alex Oh has resigned her position as the director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. Oh cited ”personal reasons,” according to a commission statement. However, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other media report that the abrupt resignation was prompted by the… Read More >>
Score Priority Settles AML Case with FINRA
Broker-dealer Score Priority has settled with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which charged the New York City-based firm with anti-money laundering (AML) violations. According to FINRA, the firm, which changed its name from Just2Trade, Inc. in January 2020, “failed to develop and implement an anti-money laundering (AML) program reasonably designed to achieve and monitor the… Read More >>
FINRA Warns Broker-Dealers About ‘Instant Funds’ Scam
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, aka FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the brokerage business, has issued a warning to the broker-dealers it supervises. According to a “special alert” from FINRA, dated March 25, 2021, so-called “retail investors” have a new rip-off to worry about. “Retail investors” are, for the most part, non-professionals who might be losing big… Read More >>
Elizabeth Warren Asks FINRA to Probe Robinhood
Robinhood’s Role in the Gamestop Frenzy Under Scrutiny Wall Street critic and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has called on self-regulatory organization FINRA to “respond to Robinhood’s role in recent market volatility, its decision to cut off customers’ trading, and the broader concerns about market fairness that these events represent.” Warren is referring to discount… Read More >>
Goldman Sachs Charged with Fingerprint Screening Failures
Fingerprints are important to crime detection. Sometimes they are crucial, uncovering evidence of unknown felonies. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that. Which is why it is striking that, between January 2015 and November 2019, Goldman Sachs allegedly “failed to fingerprint and screen for statutory disqualification a significant number of its U.S.-based… Read More >>
ATS for Digital Securities Wins Regulatory Approval
Regulated broker-dealer Oasis Pro Markets reports that it has received approval from FINRA and the SEC for its cutting-edge digital security Alternative Trading System (ATS), which allows subscribers to trade digital/blockchain securities, and to make payments for them via digital cash such as Stablecoins. It’s important for Oasis to offer this kind of an ATS… Read More >>
FINRA Fines TFA for Alleged Supervisory Failures
FINRA, the financial services industry’s self-regulatory organization, reports that Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (TFA) has “agreed to pay approximately $4.4 million in restitution to approximately 2,400 customers for failing to supervise its registered representatives’ recommendations of three different products — variable annuities, mutual funds, and 529 plans.” FINRA also fined TFA an additional $4.4 million,… Read More >>
FINRA Alleges Worden Excessively Traded Customer Accounts
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 >>
CAT Reporting Teaches Sell Side New Lessons
Despite the pandemic, sell-side firms in 2020 met a very challenging first-round of compliance with the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) trade data surveillance regulatory initiative, learning firsthand that gathering, cleansing, and reporting interfirm transaction data to regulators is much easier said than done. Yet firms are applying lessons learned and more to the CAT deadlines… Read More >>
Credit Suisse Securities Settles Another Blue-Sheets Case
Are blue sheets difficult to file correctly? The question arises because Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has been fined $600,000 for “failure to submit to the [Securities and Exchange] Commission true and complete data in response to Commission staff electronic blue sheets (‘EBS’) requests, resulting in the reporting of EBS that was incomplete or deficient.”… Read More >>
