Remember that time in 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning and its dangers were not yet widely appreciated? That was when a group of United States Senators received closed-door briefings on the imminent crisis presented by COVID-19. What did these senators do right after their secret briefings? Alert the mostly unsuspecting public? Nope. They… Read More >>
Q&A: Can DLT Help Advance FX Forward Contracts?
(This past December, Symbiont collaborated with State Street Corp. and Vanguard on a live test of a margin calculation process that is central to the transaction of a 30-day, foreign exchange forward contract. At the heart of the transaction was Symbiont’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform Assembly, which has been the focus of the trio… Read More >>
SEC Advances T+1 via Proposed Rules Changes
The SEC has given a major boost to the movement to shorten settlement times in U.S. equities markets from T+2 to T+1 via a vote this week to formally propose rule changes that tighten clearing and settlement time-frames and facilitate T+1 by mid-2024. The SEC wants the proposed changes because they will “reduce the credit,… Read More >>
NY AG, Regulators Charge Safeguard Metals with Fraud
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed suit against Safeguard Metals LLC, a precious metals company, and its owner and manager, Jeffrey S. Santulan, alleging that they defrauded investors, including many seniors, across New York and the United States. The lawsuit, originally filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a bipartisan coalition… Read More >>
The Fed Is Starting to Think About CBDCs
The Federal Reserve is mulling what a digital currency backed by a central bank would look like. This should come as no surprise given the onset of blockchains and distributed ledger technology, and then cryptocurrencies and digital assets in many forms. They all have had an underlying driver – a disintermediation push to bring on… Read More >>
FinCEN Proposes SAR Sharing to Foreign Affiliates
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that urges the establishment of a limited-duration pilot program for sharing suspicious activity reports (SARs), in accordance with Section 6212 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. The FinCEN notice also solicits public comment about the program. Under the pilot program, a… Read More >>
Gensler Mulls New Cybersecurity Rules via Expanded SCI
SEC Chair Gary Gensler wants to breathe new life into the fight against cyberattacks and is calling for a refresh of Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI) that might mean new cybersecurity hygiene and incident reporting rules for investment companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers. During his speech for the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s… 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 >>
tZero’s ATS Fumbled Disclosures: SEC
The SEC and the blockchain-based, broker-dealer tZero ATS have reached a settlement in a case where the regulator alleged that the firm while trading National Market System and digitally enhanced securities failed to make timely disclosures via Form ATS before key order book data was shared with third parties. tZero ATS, which is based in… Read More >>
CFTC’s First Chief Diversity Officer & More Briefs
CFTC Appointee Has 20 Years of Diversity Experience Tanisha Cole Edmonds has been appointed the CFTC’s first chief diversity officer and has been tasked with helping the agency advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at all levels, officials say. Edmonds, who reports to Rostin Behnam, chairman of the CFTC, will oversee the Office of… Read More >>
