Swiss private bank Julius Baer reports that it has reached a $79.7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving a money-laundering probe involving the Zurich-based world soccer group, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The U.S. settlement follows actions by the Swiss financial services regulator to close its case against the bank. Justice… Read More >>
Goldman Sachs Admits Guilt in Foreign Bribery Case
Goldman Sachs is admitting guilt and paying a fine of $2.9 billion for its role in a scandal that saw officials from the firm bribing Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials from 2009 to 2014 in order to secure ongoing business for the multinational investment bank. After much negotiation, the firm has begun to resolve the… Read More >>
Nasdaq & Caspian Take On Automated AML Investigations
Nasdaq Sytem Targets Gap in AML Inquiries Nasdaq just launched a “cloud-deployed” anti-money laundering (AML) system, the Nasdaq Automated Investigator for AML, that is intended to help financial services firms use IT to detect evidence of money laundering. The new system has been designed in partnership with Caspian, a company based in Newcastle upon Tyne,… Read More >>
Supervisory Failures Alleged in Wells Fargo Annuity Switches
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports that Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, two units of the San Francisco-based, multinational financial services company, will pay more than $2 million on charges of “supervisory violations related to variable annuity switches.” The Wells Fargo units will pay an additional $1.4 million… Read More >>
New OCIE Team to Focus on Emerging Threats
In the wake of a pandemic lockdown, the SEC has created a small army of experts that will work with the regulator’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) to quickly react to “emerging threats and current market events” and deliver expertise and resources to the SEC regional offices. The OCIE oversees examinations of SEC-registered… Read More >>
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Settles Blue Sheets Case
FINRA has censured the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC brokerage for “at least” 869 allegedly inaccurate blue sheets, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA from February 2014 to April 2017. The financial services industry’s self-regulatory authority also has fined the brokerage’s investment banking parent Morgan Stanley $875,000. FINRA says it discovered… Read More >>
OCIE Warns Private Funds Against Conflicts, Hidden Fees
A recent Risk Alert issued by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) has found “deficiencies” and possible conflicts of interest in the actions of private equity and hedge fund advisors that might have “caused investors in private funds … to pay more in fees and expenses than they should have or resulted… Read More >>
Sell-Side Firms Are Reviving Key Projects: SmartStream
(Sell-side firms are reviewing and reengaging strategic projects in the wake of a pandemic that caused staff to work remotely, says Jason Ang, program manager, TLM Collateral Management, at SmartStream Technologies. This return to strategic projects amid lockdowns and re-openings means the sell side is re focusing on collateral and its importance for credit risk… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Resolves Spoofing & Swaps Data Cases
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reports the settlement of two enforcement orders involving Deutsche Bank. In one, the bank “resolved federal court charges stemming from alleged violations of various swap data reporting and other regulatory violations,” the CFTC says. In the second enforcement action, the CFTC “issued an administrative order against Deutsche Bank Securities Inc…. Read More >>
ISITC’s Workaround for SWIFT & Negative Trading Prices
The Derivatives Working Group of ISITC, a securities industry standards group, is helping to spotlight a problem that has gotten lost in the shuffle of a pandemic and sudden recession. Essentially, how do users of the SWIFT financial messaging network process negative trading prices on commodity futures? “The effort was spurred by recent market event… Read More >>
