News Centre

UK's Financial Conduct Authority: The Financial Services Contracts Regime

Date 18/12/2018

The Government has published draft legislation(link is external) for the financial services contracts regime (FSCR). If the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement, this will enable firms who do not enter the temporary permissions regime to wind down their UK business in an orderly fashion.

Hong Kong’s Securities And Futures Commission And China Securities Regulatory Commission Hold High-Level Meeting On Enforcement Cooperation

Date 18/12/2018

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) held the seventh regular high-level meeting in Hong Kong recently to discuss a range of matters concerning cross-boundary enforcement cooperation.

New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority: Two Men Convicted On Crimes Act Charges

Date 18/12/2018

Two men have been found guilty at Tauranga District Court on charges filed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

Scott W. Bauguess, Deputy Director Of The SEC Division Of Economic And Risk Analysis, To Leave The Agency After A Decade Of Service

Date 17/12/2018

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Scott W. Bauguess, Deputy Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) and Deputy Chief Economist, will leave the agency in January after more than 11 years of service. Dr. Bauguess joined the division in 2007 as a financial economist, assumed leadership of DERA's Office of Corporate Finance in 2011, and was appointed Deputy Director in 2013. In 2017, Dr. Bauguess served as the agency's Acting Director of DERA and its Acting Chief Economist.

The MiG Report - TSX, TSX Venture Exchange

Date 17/12/2018

MIAX Options Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Plans Testing - Member Designation Standards

Date 17/12/2018

As required by Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity and MIAX Options Rule 321, certain Members of MIAX Options will have mandatory participation requirements in the annual SIFMA Business Continuity Planning Disaster Recovery (“BC/DR”) test. MIAX Options will be leveraging the annual industry-wide BC/DR test to fulfill this requirement.

CFTC Charges Chicago-Area Trader With Ongoing Forex And Commodity Fraud

Date 17/12/2018

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing of a civil enforcement action against Dro Kholamian of Barrington, Illinois, and his company, Blue Star Trading, LLC (Blue Star), an Illinois limited liability company with an office in Park Ridge, Illinois.  The CFTC Complaint charges that the Defendants fraudulently solicited potential clients to trade leveraged off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and commodity futures contracts through accounts they would manage.  The Defendants did not trade all of the clients’ funds as represented and, instead, misappropriated those funds.  The CFTC Complaint also charges the Defendants with registration violations. Records indicate that Kholamian had an affinity in the Armenian community with at least some of the individuals.

FINRA Fines UBS $5 Million For Significant Deficiencies In Anti-Money Laundering Programs - UBS To Pay $15 Million Total Fine To FINRA, SEC and FinCEN

Date 17/12/2018

FINRA announced today that it has fined UBS Financial Services Inc. (UBSFS) $4.5 million and UBS Securities LLC (UBSS) $500,000 for failing to establish and implement anti-money laundering (AML) programs reasonably designed to monitor certain high-risk transactions in customer accounts. The high-risk transactions included foreign currency wire transfers at UBSFS, and transactions in low-priced equity securities, or “penny stocks,” at UBSS.

Corrected: OCC Sets New Record With 5 Billion Cleared Contracts To Date In 2018

Date 17/12/2018

OCC, the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today said its total cleared contract volume on behalf of the U.S. equity options and futures industry has exceeded 5 billion for the year. OCC has cleared 5.01 billion total contracts and 4.91 billion options contracts year-to-date, surpassing the previous records of 4.60 billion total contracts and 4.56 billion options contracts set in 2011. The new industry volume record will be finalized at year-end, since 10 business days remain in 2018.

Office Of The Comptroller Of The Currency Bulletin: Capital: Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking - Updated Framework For Measuring Derivative Counterparty Credit Exposure

Date 17/12/2018

Summary

The OCC, with other federal financial regulatory agencies, have published a notice of proposed rulemaking to provide an updated framework for measuring derivative counterparty credit exposure. The proposed rule would replace the existing current exposure methodology with the Standardized Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR) for banks subject to the advanced approaches.