FINRA, the financial industry’s non-profit self-regulatory authority, has fined Credit Suisse Securities $9 million for “failing to comply with securities laws and rules designed to protect investors, including the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Customer Protection Rule and FINRA rules requiring firms to disclose potential conflicts of interest when issuing research reports.” In a formulation that’s… Read More >>
FinCEN Wants Better AML Regs for the U.S.
FinCEN Wants to Improve AML/CFT Regs The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury better known as FinCEN, has issued a request for information that asks for comments on “ways to streamline, modernize, and update the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime of the… Read More >>
NatWest Bank Fined $352M via Money Laundering Case
U.K. financial institution National Westminster Bank has been fined £264.8 million ($352.7 million) after being convicted for breaches of money laundering regulation in a criminal case led by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a key financial services regulator. The fine follows a guilty plea filed by NatWest officials in early October via Westminster Magistrates Court… Read More >>
ICE Shakes Up NYSE’s Executive Team
December has always been full of surprises — good and bad — and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the exchanges company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, has announced a slew of executive surprises this week for NYSE and ICE. In a press release and an accompanying letter from Jeff Sprecher, founder, chairman, and CEO… Read More >>
Broadridge Dashboard Offers ESG Views of Companies: Q&A
(Post-trade systems, services, and software provider Broadridge Financial Solutions recently launched the Broadridge ESG Performance Dashboard, an effort that is intended to present investors and shareholders with a wide view of companies and their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings, officials say. ESG criteria “are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially… Read More >>
Credit Suisse to Exit Prime Services Business
Credit Suisse officials shortly after they announced an exit from the prime services business revealed that they have signed a referral agreement with BNP Paribas that will enable the French banking giant to provide support for the Swiss bank’s prime services and derivatives clearing customers. The move was made to facilitate the migration of clients… Read More >>
NatWest Pleads Guilty to Money-Laundering Violations
A large bank is guilty of violating the United Kingdom’s money-laundering regulations. Says who? Says the bank itself. FTF News readers, who are familiar with all the ploys financial institutions employ to avoid saying they’ve done wrong (all that neither-confirming-nor-denying while paying up and agreeing to be censured), will know just how unusual that is…. Read More >>
Crypto Firms Face Many AML Challenges: Q&A
(A cryptocurrency trading platform, Voyager Digital Ltd., recently announced that it is using anti-money laundering (AML) solutions from NICE Actimize. Voyager has signed onto the cloud-based AML Essentials offerings and will be using the Suspicious Activity Monitoring and Customer Due Diligence applications to monitor its operations. The news gave FTF News an opportunity to reach… Read More >>
Compliance Costs for Fighting Financial Crime Soar: Report
The “projected total cost of financial crime compliance across all financial institutions reached $213.9 billion in 2021, surpassing the $180.9 billion recorded in 2020.” That projection is from the “True Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Global Report,” a white paper from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Not surprisingly, the white paper also concludes that the “majority of… Read More >>
Rep’s Strategies Spur FINRA Charges & Fine for Firm
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has hit a brokerage in Cincinnati, Ohio with a censure, a fine of $275,000, and the obligation to make more than $1 million in customer restitution. The broker is the O.N. Equity Sales Company, Inc. (ONESCO), which “offers various investment products, including deferred variable annuities, to the public through its 760… Read More >>
