Morningstar Ups Ownership of ESG Research Firm Morningstar, Inc., an investment research provider, reports an agreement to acquire Sustainalytics, a provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings and research. Morningstar also points out that it currently has an approximately 40 percent ownership stake in Sustainalytics, first acquired in 2017, and that, under the terms… Read More >>
Pandemic Overshadows CAT Reporting Milestone
Broker-dealers can start reporting their securities transaction order data to the big data market surveillance project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), but this milestone has been overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CAT Operating Committee officially announced earlier this week that the CAT data repository is live for broker-dealer reporting. In addition, securities… Read More >>
FNZ-GBST Merger Under Scrutiny in the U.K.
CMA Starts Phase 2 Review of FNZ-GBST Union A U.K. regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is moving ahead with a formal investigation into FNZ’s acquisition of GBST Holdings Ltd., following a recent announcement that CMA officials were mulling this next step. “On 30 March 2020, the CMA decided that it was or may… Read More >>
NYFIX Matching Now Supports SWIFT Messaging
Itiviti & ECS Partner to Bolster NYFIX Matching Itiviti, a technology and service provider to financial institutions, reports the advent of a partnership with ECS Fin, a provider of financial messaging services and transaction-processing solutions, that will add trade settlement to NYFIX Matching. The partnership, Itiviti says, will enable NYFIX Matching to process trade messages… Read More >>
Raymond James Settles Improper Charges Case for $15M
Raymond James has settled SEC charges that three of its units improperly charged advisory fees on inactive retail client accounts and charged excess commissions for brokerage-customer investments in certain unit investment trusts (UITs). The firm, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based investment bank and financial services company founded in 1961, has agreed to be censured and will… Read More >>
Despite FCPA, Corruption Remains ‘Endemic’: SEC’s Clayton
Despite vigorous American enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, which has resulted in “nearly 80 FCPA cases in the past five years alone, involving alleged misconduct in more than 60 countries,” corruption remains “endemic” in some countries where “business opportunities are attractive” and bribery may be required to capitalize on them. So… Read More >>
SEC Amendments Jolt CAT Project
The SEC is proposing amendments to the implementation of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) project that are intended to increase operational transparency and underscore the financial accountability of the market-wide surveillance project that has experienced several delays since its launch. In fact, earlier this year, Thesys Technologies, acting as Thesys CAT, was phased out as… Read More >>
OCC Settles Charges of Compliance Failures for $20M
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report jointly that the Chicago-based Options Clearing Corp. (OCC) will make “pay $20 million in penalties to settle charges that it failed to implement policies to manage certain risks as required by U.S. laws and SEC and CFTC rules.” It… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Settles FCPA Case for $16 Million
Deutsche Bank has reached a $16 million settlement with the SEC over a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case in which the firm was charged with hiring relatives of foreign government officials as a way to gain influence in landing investment banking business. SEC officials alleged that Deutsche Bank employees “hired relatives at the request… Read More >>
Cantor Fitzgerald & BMO Capital Settle ADR Cases
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that broker Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. will pay more than $647,000 and broker BMO Capital Markets Corporation will pay more than $3.9 million to settle charges of improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). ADRs are U.S. securities that represent foreign shares of a foreign company,… Read More >>
