The SEC and the CFTC have taken on major Wall Street firms and penalized them for alleged “widespread recordkeeping failures” and have gotten the firms to acknowledge their shortcomings and to pay penalties in the millions. The SEC alone has racked up $1.1 billion in penalties from 16 firms and the CFTC has settled charges… Read More >>
Nasdaq Overhauls Its Corporate Structure & Other News
Nasdaq Sets Up Three New Divisions Nasdaq has announced that it is reorganizing its business units into three divisions that better reflect “the foundational shifts” of the global financial system and will help the exchanges company better serve client needs. The three new business divisions are Market Platforms, Capital Access Platforms, and Anti-Financial Crime, officials… Read More >>
Data Disposal Case Spurs $35M Penalty for MSSB
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports settling charges against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MSSB) “stemming from the firm’s extensive failures, over a five-year period, to protect the personal identifying information, or PII, of approximately 15 million customers.” MSSB neither admits nor denies the charges. However, it has agreed to pay a $35 million… Read More >>
Nasdaq Launches a Digital Assets Business & Other News
Nasdaq Establishes a Custody Solution for Digital Assets Nasdaq reports the launch of a new business that it says will “power the digital asset ecosystem.” The new business “underpins Nasdaq’s ambition to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation in digital assets by providing trusted and institutional-grade solutions, focused on enhanced custody, liquidity and integrity,”… Read More >>
Firms Must Capture Risky Communications: Q&A
(Gone are the days when financial services firms could tightly control contact between staff and clients and limit the behavior that facilitates transactions. But, in 2022, firms have to capture a growing list of digital interactions such as unified communication (UC) and web collaboration platforms such as the popular Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Symphony, and Cisco… Read More >>
Hearsay Updates System as SEC Readies New Rules
Financial services firms have about six weeks to comply with a new SEC rule that regards testimonials as advertisements, and many perceive the changes they will need to make as daunting. Hearsay Systems, a social media compliance, and digital client engagement provider, reports that it has updated its compliance capabilities to help firms come up… Read More >>
Broadridge Links NYFIX to Coinbase Prime & Other News
Broadridge & Coinbase Target Buy-Side Firms Broadridge Financial Solutions is partnering with crypto exchange Coinbase to provide an integrated solution that enables NYFIX clients to route order flow to Coinbase Prime via the FIX protocol for electronic trading, officials say. The partnership will also allow “buy-side traders to source crypto liquidity from Coinbase and trade… Read More >>
BofA Securities Fined $5M via OTC Reporting Case
“Oops, I did it again” might work as an excuse once, maybe even twice, especially if accompanied by a twinkly smile. But 7.4 million times? It’s not that innocent, as Britney might say. Let’s all sing along with the verse: FINRA, the self-regulating authority for U.S. broker-dealers, which is overseen by the Securities and Exchange… Read More >>
Corporate Actions Meets DLT via SWIFT & Other News
American Century, Citi & Vanguard Join SWIFT Project SWIFT, the global financial messaging, systems, and services cooperative, reports that it is “collaborating with seven securities players — including asset managers and custodians American Century Investments, Citi, Vanguard and Northern Trust — to drive efficiencies in communicating significant corporate events.” The corporate actions project is based… Read More >>
Get Ready for a Major Battle Over ESG
Call it a fight over conflicting ideological screening methods or a backlash against a backlash. But, regardless of the initial label, a major political battle over environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles is gathering steam. As conservative U.S. states fall in line against the usage of ESG principles for public pension investments, 13 state treasurers… Read More >>
