Convergex Names Ops and Strategic Planning Head New York-based Convergex, an agency-focused brokerage and trading-related services provider, reports that Jason Emerson has been named managing director and head of operations and strategic planning. In this new position, he will be “responsible for overseeing the firm’s global operational initiatives,” according to a statement, which notes also… Read More >>
NSX Relaunch Will Bring Light to Dark Corners of Trading: CEO
(Editor’s note: Mark Sulavka, the chairman, CEO and president of the National Stock Exchange (NSX), is working hard to relaunch the bourse 17 months after it closed in May 2014. Sulavka is overseeing the final stages of bringing back the exchange for trading equity securities and exchange-traded fund (ETFs) by early next month. The heart… Read More >>
Time to Ramp Up Social Media Risk Management?
Financial services firms may want to up their social media compliance training say industry experts reacting to the news that a federal grand jury in San Francisco and the SEC are charging James Alan Craig, who lives in Scotland, with securities fraud via an alleged scheme involving Twitter accounts and damaging messages. In fact, to… Read More >>
National Stock Exchange Announces Its Resurrection
After closing for 17 months, the National Stock Exchange (NSX) is in the final stages of relaunching a national securities exchange for trading equity securities and exchange-traded fund (ETFs) with a strategy to become “the leader in low-fee market access,” say NSX officials. The low-fee strategy is intended to drive higher levels of activity than… Read More >>
SEC Collects $5.8M from DBRS for Monitoring Woes
U.S. regulator, the SEC has charged credit rating agency DBRS Inc. with misrepresenting its surveillance methodology for ratings of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities and re-securitized real estate mortgage investment conduits during a three-year period. An SEC investigation found DBRS “misrepresented [that] it would monitor on a monthly basis each of its outstanding ratings of U.S…. Read More >>
SEC Enforcement Actions Jump 7 Percent in 2015
The SEC’s Enforcement Division reports that it had a seven percent increase in cases for fiscal year 2015 over the previous year and is breaking ground in several facets of the securities industry because of data and quantitative analytics and the help of the regulator’s other divisions. “The Enforcement Division’s leveraging of data, quantitative analytics… Read More >>
Obama Announces Nominees for SEC Commissioners
The SEC may have a full slate of commissioners by the end of the year as the Obama administration has put forth two nominees — one to fill a current vacancy and another to step in for Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, who completed his term this year. Aguilar has been serving since 2008 when he… Read More >>
SEC to Respond to Op Risk Woes for Private Fund Advisors
Citing the SunGard Investone pricing crisis, SEC Chair Mary Jo White is clearly interested in the operational risk issues facing private fund advisors and stress tests and more will be forthcoming from the regulator, according to a speech she gave before the Managed Funds Association’s Outlook 2015 Conference in New York on Oct. 16. The… Read More >>
The SEC’s ‘Broken Windows’ Policy
Given some of the recent actions by the SEC, it’s reasonable to ask if the regulator may be enforcing a kind of “broken windows policing” effort. When put into practice, the broken windows theory as applied to non-Wall Street crime by police officers involves acting upon “small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping,”… Read More >>
Disclosure Failures to Cost Blackstone Group $39 Million
Three private equity fund advisers within The Blackstone Group will be paying nearly $39 million to settle SEC charges that they failed to tell investors about the financial benefits accrued from accelerated monitoring fees and discounts on legal fees, according to the SEC. Approximately $29 million of the settlement is slated to be distributed to… Read More >>
