The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reports that Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, has been fined $6 million for “failing to provide complete and accurate trade data in an automated format in a timely manner when requested by FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).” “Blue sheets” is the informal… Read More >>
Faulty IT Can Cut Revenues in Half: TABB Group
Some Firms Still Using Legacy, Error-Prone IT Nearly one-third of asset managers — based outside of North America — say that they are hanging onto legacy IT platforms even if these systems are causing trade delays and errors, according to a new survey from market research firm TABB Group. The global, non-North American investment managers… Read More >>
NY Senate Confirms Superintendent of Financial Services
Acting Superintendent Takes Permanent Post The New York State Senate has confirmed Maria T. Vullo to be superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). As superintendent, Vullo, who has been acting superintendent since being nominated by Governor Andrew Cuomo to head the department last February, is “responsible for regulating more… Read More >>
SEC Fines Merrill Lynch $415M for Misusing Customer Cash
The SEC reports that Merrill Lynch has admitted to illegally using billions of dollars of its customers’ money, on a weekly basis from 2009 until last year, to finance its own trades. The well-known brokerage, owned by Bank of America Corp., will pay a $415 million penalty and admits wrongdoing to settle charges that it… Read More >>
SEC Approves IEX, Speed Bumps and All
After a four-year journey, the IEX Group has secured the SEC’s approval to launch a new securities transaction exchange that will allow speed bumps against high-frequency trading (HFT) that in theory will allow for a more level playing field, particularly for buy-side firms that have been burned by HFT firms. Late last week, the SEC… Read More >>
UnaVista Hires from Electra Information Systems
UnaVista Expands Again in North America Neil Giavara, formerly the senior sales director at reconciliation and post-trade systems vendor Electra Information Systems, has joined the North American branch of UnaVista, a hosted software platform vendor for matching, reconciliation and regulatory reporting that is part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). Giavara was at Electra… Read More >>
Robotics Comes to Due Diligence Reporting
Opus Signs Distribution Deal with OutsideIQ Opus, a regulatory software as a service (SaaS) vendor, announced that its Alacra, know your customer (KYC), reference data management and onboarding platform, will have access to automated due diligence reports for compliance via a distribution partnership with OutsideIQ, an artificial intelligence software provider. The agreement will make OutsideIQ’s… Read More >>
SEC Alleges Accounting Firm Botched Exams
The SEC has clamped down on Santos, Postal & Co. (SPC), an accounting firm responsible for conducting SEC-related exams, charging it and one of its partners, Joseph A. Scolaro, a 25-percent SPC owner, with inadequate performance in their conduct of surprise examinations of an investment advisor, SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises, whose president allegedly “secretly… Read More >>
SEC Pushing for Consolidated Audit Trail
The SEC voted late last month to move ahead with the final phase of the consolidated audit trail (CAT) project, part of a proposed national market system (NMS) plan to “create a single, comprehensive database that would enable regulators to efficiently track all trading activity in the U.S. equity and options market,” officials say. The… Read More >>
SEC Extends Pilot to Limit Market Volatility
The SEC has issued an order extending the pilot period of a key initiative under the Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS) plan for one year. Known as the limit up-limit down (LULD) mechanism, it was first formulated in 2012 to address today’s extraordinary, often technology-mediated market volatility. The LULD pilot is meant to control… Read More >>
