News Centre

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.

CFTC And State Of Utah Amend Their Complaint Against Rust Rare Coin And Gaylen Rust To Charge Additional Defendants For Participating In $200 Million Salt Lake City Precious Metals Ponzi Scheme

Date 17/12/2018

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Utah Department of Commerce, Division of Securities, through its Attorney General (State of Utah) filed an amended complaint alleging that Denise Gunderson Rust (Denise Rust) and Joshua Daniel Rust (Joshua Rust) actively participated and aided and abetted, in a precious metals Ponzi scheme with defendants Gaylen Dean Rust (Gaylen Rust) and Rust Rare Coin, Inc. (RRC). Through this scheme, Gaylen Rust and RRC fraudulently solicited at least $200 million from investors since May 2013 for the purported purpose of pooling their money to purchase silver, a commodity in interstate commerce (Silver Pool). [See CFTC Press Release 7842-18]  

Moscow Exchange: Calculation Of Stress Collateral Requirement During New Year/Christmas Public Holidays

Date 17/12/2018

CCP NCC is changing standard period of stress collateral requirement calculation and sets the following schedule:

Athens Stock Exchange: Changes In ATHEX Index Series

Date 17/12/2018

The Athens Stock Exchange, informs about the changes that will be implemented in the composition of the ATHEX Index Series. All changes will be implemented after the close of business on Friday December 21, 2018 with effective date Thursday December 27, 2018.

EBA Publishes Final Guidelines On Disclosure Of Non-Performing And Forborne Exposures

Date 17/12/2018

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its final Guidelines on disclosure of non- performing and forborne exposures. The disclosure will allow market participants and stakeholders to have a better picture of the quality of the banks' assets, the main features of their non-performing and forborne exposures, and in the case of more troubled banks, the distribution of the problematic assets and the value of the collateral backing those assets.

SEC: BNY Mellon To Pay More Than $54 Million For Improper Handling Of ADRs

Date 17/12/2018

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Bank of New York Mellon will pay more than $54 million to settle charges of improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

EBA To Run Its Next EU-Wide Stress Test In 2020

Date 17/12/2018

In its meeting on 12 December 2018, the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA) decided to carry out its next EU-wide stress test in 2020, in line with its previous decision to aim for a biennial exercise. The EBA will start immediately to prepare the methodology for the 2020 stress test exercise. This decision has been communicated to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.  In 2019, the EBA will perform its regular annual transparency exercise.