The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement has issued an advisory “designed to give enforcement staff guidance on future enforcement resolution recommendations to the Commission.” One long-time securities industry observer summarized the enforcement advisory’s import by saying “The big news here is that the CFTC will no longer be letting firms off the hook… Read More >>
UBS Securities Hit With Another FINRA Fine
UBS Securities, a subsidiary of the world’s largest private bank, is in trouble with FINRA, the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization (SRO). It’s not the first time. From the regulatory authority’s customary Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC), FINRA alleges: “From September 2015 through January 2019, UBS-S published inaccurate monthly statistics regarding execution of covered… Read More >>
Lacewell Leaves Behind a Legacy of Activism
Linda A. Lacewell recently announced that she will be stepping down on August 24 from her position as superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) after two-and-a-half years at the helm. Her departure coincides with the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is leaving because of a scandal involving sexual harassment… Read More >>
Robinhood Financial Pays $65M to Settle SEC Case
Robinhood Financial LLC, a Silicon Valley brokerage company founded by two Stanford University grads, Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, will pay $65 million to settle charges that it misled its investors by making “material misrepresentations and omissions,” according to a cease-and-desist order from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Robinhood Financial “provides online and… Read More >>
CFTC Enforcers Report Banner Year for 2020
’Tis the season for annual reports, and one of the most instructive is from the regulator Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its Division of Enforcement. When it comes to the CFTC’s mission to “be tough on those who break the rules,” as Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vince McGonagle puts it in a commission… Read More >>
AML, KYC Fines Hit $5.6B as of mid-2020
Penalties assessed against financial institutions for non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), and sanctions regulations totaled $5.6 billion by the end of July 2020, according to a mid-year report from a well-known fintech provider. That provider, Fenergo, founded in 2008, characterizes itself as a “digital enabler of client and regulatory technology for… Read More >>
Standard Chartered Braces for Probes of FX Practices
Standard Chartered Bank reports that it has received a so-called “decision notice” from the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The decision notice imposes a penalty of £102,163,200 ($136.1 million) (net of a 30 percent early settlement discount) on the bank group. That penalty is related to the group’s “historical… Read More >>
SEC Charges Two ICO Issuers with Registration Violations
The SEC reports that charges have been settled against CarrierEQ Inc., the privately held, Boston-based startup that does business as Airfox, and Paragon Coin Inc., an online financial entity formed in mid-2017 and headed by a former Miss Iowa beauty queen. Paragon proposed to “add blockchain technology to the cannabis industry and work toward legalization… Read More >>
U.S. Regulators Levied the Most Penalties in 2017
U.S. regulators levied 99 percent of the total global penalties against individuals and 94 percent of the global total penalties against firms in 2017. That’s the topline finding from the fifth annual “Global Enforcement Review,” published by the Compliance and Regulatory Consulting Practice of Duff & Phelps. Duff & Phelps, owned by Permira, a European… Read More >>
Citigroup Pays $10.5M to Resolve Rogue Traders Case
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that Citigroup has agreed to pay $10.5 million in penalties to settle two enforcement actions involving its books and records, its internal accounting controls, and its trader supervision. The charges stem from $81 million in losses due to trader mismarking and unauthorized proprietary trading, and $475 million in… Read More >>
