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 >>
Crypto Crime Hits $14B in 2021: Report
Crypto investors beware. The good news: Crypto-crime is “becoming a smaller and smaller part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.” That’s according to a blog post “preview” of the 2022 “Crypto Crime Report” from Chainalysis, a cloud-based, blockchain data and analysis platform provider founded in 2014 and headquartered in New York City. The not-so-good news: Crypto crime… Read More >>
Should the SEC & CFTC Create a Crypto Bureau?
Two of the major overseers of financial markets — the SEC and the CFTC — appear to be in a bureaucratic tug-of-war when it comes to the regulatory oversight of emerging digital assets, and former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is proposing that the agencies work together to co-create a crypto bureau. In addition, an… Read More >>
FinCEN Wants Better AML Regs for the U.S.
FinCEN Wants to Improve AML/CFT Regs The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury better known as FinCEN, has issued a request for information that asks for comments on “ways to streamline, modernize, and update the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime of the… Read More >>
Navigating GIPS, SEC & ESG Rules: Q&A with Confluence
(Regulatory and industry standards compliance concerns are hitting home for many securities firms, and Kate Maryniak, head of product management for Revolution at Confluence Technologies, spoke with FTF News about them in the second half of our recent Q&A. Maryniak, who originally joined StatPro in 2001, has served in many client-facing roles to help deliver… Read More >>
Wedbush Settles Charges of Unregistered Sales & Activity
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that Wedbush Securities Inc. will pay more than $1.2 million to “settle charges arising from the unlawful unregistered distribution of nearly 100 million shares of more than 50 different low-priced microcap companies, and from Wedbush’s failure to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) pertaining to those transactions.” Wedbush,… 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 >>
Hearsay’s A.I. Tools Help Firms Cleanse Social Content
Hearsay Systems, a digital communications compliance vendor, has launched two new capabilities that use artificial intelligence (A.I.) — one to sift out inappropriate images in videos and direct messages, and another to detect offensive text— all to help financial advisors make certain their posts are compliant with regulatory and industry standards. The new features are… Read More >>
Crypto to Face New Rules in 2022: Regulators
Heavy-hitter federal regulators say new rules are coming for cryptocurrencies, the new, mostly unregulated financial sector that competes with traditional banks without offering deposit insurance, the banks’ most important protection. And cryptography has been beset by high-profile scandals that have cost some would-be crypto millionaires their entire fortunes. As well, at a time of worsening… Read More >>
Key Groups Push to Start T+1 in 2024
The goalpost for the move by U.S. equities markets from T+2 to the shorter T+1 settlement cycle has shifted from 2023 to the first half of 2024 after an outreach to the industry revealed that more time was needed to revamp and test systems, workflows, and operations to facilitate this fundamental change to securities transaction processing…. Read More >>
