Move over, “Jeopardy,” “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” “The Price is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune!” There’s a new game show in town and it’s backed by a well-known sheriff — the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — now with a sense of humor. Well, sort of. No one expects a barrel of laughs to… Read More >>
Allianz Unit Pays Billions in Fines via Fraud Case
Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC (AGI US) has admitted its guilt in what the SEC is calling “a massive fraudulent scheme” that hid the major risks of a complicated options trading strategy that the firm called “Structured Alpha.” The alleged scheme did not save the Structured Alpha funds, which collapsed and caused investors to lose… Read More >>
‘Cowen Digital’ Launches & Other News Briefs
Cowen Division Focuses on Digital Asset Custody Cowen Inc. has officially launched the Cowen Digital division to provide a platform for trade execution and custody solutions that support digital assets traded by institutional clients, officials say. The new division, based in Stamford, Conn., offers custody solutions via Cowen’s partnership with PolySign’s Standard Custody & Trust,… Read More >>
CNR & SEC Settle Client Fraud Charges for $30M
Boutique registered investment adviser City National Rochdale (CNR) will pay more than $30 million to settle charges that its “undisclosed conflicts of interest defrauded current and prospective clients,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports. The $30 million-plus from CNR will be placed into an SEC fund for distribution to “harmed investors.” SEC officials… Read More >>
Credit Suisse Securities Settles Conflicts of Interest Case
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 >>
Deutsche Bank Shifts Prime Services to BNPP & More News Briefs
BNP Paribas Takes On 900 Staff Members BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank officials report that they completed by the end of last year the “transfer of clients, technology and key staff from Deutsche Bank’s global prime finance and electronic equities businesses to BNP Paribas,” which was according to the agreed-upon timeline. “Over the course of… Read More >>
NatWest Pleads Guilty via Fraud Case & Pays $35M
NatWest Markets Plc, a London, U.K.-based banking and financial services firm, has entered guilty pleas to charges of perpetrating frauds in the markets for U.S. Treasury securities and futures contracts, the United States Department of Justice reports. The NatWest guilty pleas, tendered in the District of Connecticut, were, specifically, to one count of wire fraud… Read More >>
JPMorgan Fined $200M for Skipping Digital Recordkeeping
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is paying a hefty $200 million in fines to the SEC and the CFTC on charges that it failed to retain and store trading-related digital communication records of staff members of JPMorgan Securities (JPMS), a broker-dealer subsidiary of the financial services giant. JPMorgan will be paying $125 million to the SEC… Read More >>
ISITC Promotes Vice Chair to Top Post
Industry standards trade group ISITC has named Kristin Hochstein, the current vice chair, to be its new chair for the 2022-23 term, and she will take over for Lisa Iagatta, who will finish her three-year term as chair by the end of this month. The group, which develops standards and best practices for financial services… Read More >>
CloudMargin & Margin Tonic to Launch AANA Service
Collaboration to Target Ongoing UMR Calculations CloudMargin, a collateral and margin management vendor, and Margin Tonic, a service provider for collateral and post-trade operations, are working together to launch “a global Average Aggregated Notional Amount (AANA) calculation service” that trading firms can use to navigate the phases of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) regulatory reforms…. Read More >>