JPMorgan Securities (JPMS), UBS Financial Services, and TradeStation Securities have settled charges made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they failed to keep pace with the ever-changing and growing threat of identity theft. The SEC is alleging that the trio had deficient efforts to prevent customer identity theft and thus violated the “Identity… Read More >>
Don’t Forget the CFTC’s Role in the Climate Debate
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been getting a lot of attention and corporate pushback for its proposed rulemaking efforts “that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks.” While that battle is ongoing, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission… Read More >>
Titanium CEO Pleads Guilty to $21M Crypto Fraud
Is $21 million scammed from would-be cryptocurrency investors worth up to two decades behind bars? The 54-year-old chief executive officer of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services Inc. (TBIS) might have the next 20 years to ponder his answer to that fraught question. He’ll probably learn much more about his fate on November 18 of this year,… Read More >>
Google Cloud Tapped for Climate FinTech & Other News
MAS & Google Launch Climate FinTech Initiative The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Google Cloud report that they are launching an initiative “to drive the innovation, incubation, and scaling of climate FinTech solutions in Asia.” The Point Carbon Zero Program is “a collaboration under MAS’ Project Greenprint,” that will spur climate FinTech solutions to… Read More >>
Equitable Pays $50M to Resolve Annuity Fees Case
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that it has charged Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company with fraud, “for providing account statements to about 1.4 million variable annuity investors that included materially misleading statements and omissions concerning investor fees.” Equitable has agreed to compensate harmed investors, most of whom are public school teachers and staff… Read More >>
SEC’s New Proxy Adviser Rule Stirs Old Woes
The SEC’s recent 3-2 vote to undo key provisions of a Trump-era rule governing proxy advisory firms has fanned the flames of controversy even though the stated goal was to bolster the independence and timeliness of these providers’ offerings. In fact, a major proxy-advice vendor, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), wanted the SEC to rescind the… Read More >>
EY Penalized $100M via SEC’s Exam Cheating Case
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged auditor Ernst & Young LLP with “cheating by its audit professionals on exams required to obtain and maintain Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licenses, and for withholding evidence of this misconduct from the SEC’s Enforcement Division during the Division’s investigation of the matter.” Ernst & Young (EY) “admits the… Read More >>
UBS Broker & SEC Settle Complex Case for $25M
UBS Financial Services has agreed to pay a total of $25 million to the SEC to resolve charges that it allegedly failed to give its financial advisors adequate training or supervisory oversight in support of a complex options trading effort, the Yield Enhancement Strategy (YES), that caused surprise losses for investors. SEC officials say that… Read More >>
BlackRock Asks SEC to Streamline Climate Risk Reporting
With $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM), BlackRock is generally considered one of the world’s top asset managers. So, when it sends a comment letter about a regulatory matter, people tend to pay attention. Earlier this month, BlackRock sent its list of suggestions to the SEC about the regulator’s push for new regulation that… Read More >>
Weiss Asset Management Penalized $6.9M via SEC Case
The Securities and Exchange Commission reports that Weiss Asset Management LP, an investment advisory firm known by its acronym WAM, has agreed to pay approximately $6.9 million to settle charges that “it violated the federal securities laws when it unlawfully purchased stock in seven public offerings after selling short those same stocks.” Specifically, the WAM… Read More >>
