Broadridge Financial Solutions is bolstering its regulatory compliance services for broker-dealers via an acquisition of the cloud-based Execution Compliance and Surveillance Service (ECS) assets of Wall Street consultancy Jordan & Jordan (J&J), officials say. J&J officials describe their ECS offering as a managed service that includes “comprehensive reviews to assess compliance with various aspects of… Read More >>
Neovest Charged with Acting as an Unregistered Broker
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMC) will be paying a $2.75 million penalty to settle SEC allegations that its Neovest subsidiary was acting as an unregistered broker-dealer for more than a decade in addition to its role as an order and execution management system (OEMS) vendor. This case marks the first time that the SEC has penalized… Read More >>
SEC Penalizes Guggenheim via Whistleblower Suppression Case
Managers at Guggenheim Securities, LLC, a New York City-based unit of Chicago-based Guggenheim Partners, a securities broker-dealer, and investment advisory, attempted to violate whistleblower rules, according to charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The result: The SEC has slapped a cease-and-desist order and a $208,912 penalty on Guggenheim Securities. Guggenheim Securities has… Read More >>
Robinhood Pays $70M to Resolve FINRA Case
Self-regulatory organization (SRO) FINRA has fined online brokerage Robinhood Financial $57 million and required $12.6 million in restitution to investors allegedly harmed by the firm, which says that it has improved its platform stability, and neither admits nor denies the charges of the settlement. “The sanctions represent the largest financial penalty ever ordered by FINRA… Read More >>
Symphony Buys Cloud9 to Jolt Voice Trading
Symphony to Unite Voice Trading with NLP Symphony, a messaging and platform provider for trading firms, reports that it is trying to “tackle true pain points in markets’ workflows” via the acquisition of trader voice/electronic communication and analytics company Cloud9 Technologies. The acquisition will help Symphony “take the lead in front office communications with new… Read More >>
FINRA Puts an Expiration Date on OATS
Self-regulatory organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is quietly putting an expiration date of September 1, 2021, on the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) reaches a new level of reliability. In typical legalese, FINRA officials released the following Regulatory Notice 21-21: “Effective September 1, 2021, FINRA is amending… Read More >>
Do Regulators Need to Clarify CCO Liability?
“Regulators, compliance officers and the investing public would all benefit from the adoption of a framework for evaluating potential cases against chief compliance officers (CCOs) in the financial sector.” So says the New York City Bar Association, which has offered a proposal for doing just that. The proposal, a follow-up to the committee’s February 2020… Read More >>
Bitcoin-Based Futures Are Risky Business: Regulators
An investor bulletin from the SEC and the CFTC is warning investors to be fully aware of the risks that come with Bitcoin-based futures given the many pitfalls that come with cryptocurrency trading. The “Funds Trading in Bitcoin Futures” bulletin from earlier this month targets “investors considering a fund with exposure to the Bitcoin futures… Read More >>
Stopping the Financial Exploitation of the Elderly
Among the most troubling issues that FTF News reports upon via our enforcement stories is the sad truth that a lot of very bad people prey upon the elderly to steal their life savings via securities trading scams. To help combat this problem, three key organizations for the securities industry — FINRA, the SEC, and… Read More >>
Gensler Launches PCAOB Shake-up by Ousting Chairman
SEC Chair Gary Gensler startled the U.S. securities industry last week when he ousted William D. Duhnke III from his chairmanship of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and then began a board overhaul. The overhaul may have been in response to concerns raised by former members of the PCAOB’s Investor Advisory Group (IAG)…. Read More >>
