News Centre

CFTC Orders Four Financial Institutions To Pay Total Of $260 Million For Recordkeeping And Supervision Failures For Widespread Use Of Unapproved Communication Methods

Date 08/08/2023

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued orders simultaneously filing and settling charges against swap dealer and futures commission merchant (FCM) affiliates of four financial institutions for failing to maintain, preserve, or produce records that were required to be kept under CFTC recordkeeping requirements, and failing to diligently supervise matters related to their businesses as CFTC registrants.

Dream Exchange Announces New Investors

Date 08/08/2023

Dream Exchange, is proud to announce that Fortune 500 executives Dereck and Regina Gray, Darrick and Dr. Monique Johnson, as well as Corey Johnson have proudly become investors in the Dream Exchange. They join a consortium of investors from many industries, backgrounds, and areas of expertise who have a firm commitment to changing our public capital market system.

SEC Charges 11 Wall Street Firms With Widespread Recordkeeping Failures - Firms Admit To Wrongdoing And Agree To Pay Penalties Totaling $289 Million

Date 08/08/2023

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 10 firms in their capacity as broker-dealers and one dually registered broker-dealer and investment adviser for widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their employees to maintain and preserve electronic communications. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders. They acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws, agreed to pay combined penalties of $289 million as outlined below, and have begun implementing improvements to their compliance policies and procedures to address these violations.

Statement Of CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero In Support Of Holding Banks Accountable For Widespread Use Of Personal Text Messaging And/Or Whatsapp To Evade Regulatory Oversight - CFTC Enforcement Action Against Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, And Bank Of Montreal

Date 08/08/2023

I support this enforcement action against a Wall Street bank (Wells Fargo) and a group of large foreign banks (BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, both headquartered in France with U.S. registered brokers or dealers and Bank of Montreal, headquartered in Canada), as another victory in holding banks accountable for their pervasive use of unauthorized communication methods, like private texts and in some cases Whatsapp, violating the law and evading regulatory oversight requirements.  Together with our previous offline communications enforcement actions, the Commission has levied over $1 billion in penalties against 18 Wall Street institutions and large foreign banks, sending a zero tolerance message to those who seek to evade regulatory oversight.  This is combined with $1.5 billion in penalties from the SEC, for a total of more than $2.5 billion in penalties.

ESMA Publishes Latest Edition Of Its Newsletter

Date 08/08/2023

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its latest edition of the Spotlight on Markets Newsletter.

Statement Of CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson Regarding The CFTC’s Reaching Over $1 Billion In Civil Monetary Penalties Against Bank-Affiliated Entities For Employees’ Offline Communications

Date 08/08/2023

Today, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) issued a series of orders settling charges against swap dealers and their affiliated futures commission merchants (Bank-Affiliated Entities).  According to the CFTC’s investigation, employees at the Bank-Affiliated Entities failed to comply with CFTC recordkeeping requirements, as well as firm-wide internal recordkeeping policies.  The investigation also found that managers failed to diligently supervise their employees’ compliance with recordkeeping obligations.

Tehran Stock Exchange Bulletin - July 2023

Date 08/08/2023

Click here to download Tehran Stock Exchange's monthly bulletin.

London Stock Exchange Group: Publication Of Offering Circular

Date 08/08/2023

The following offering circular has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority and is available for viewing:

Offering circular relating to the London Stock Exchange Group plc, LSEGA Financing plc, LSEG Netherlands B.V. and LSEG US Fin Corp. £4,000,0000,000 Euro Medium Term Note Programme dated 8 August 2023.

MarketAxess To Acquire Algorithmic Trading Provider Pragma - Acquisition To Accelerate Development Of Quantitative Execution Algorithms And Data-Driven Analytics For Fixed-Income

Date 08/08/2023

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pragma, a quantitative trading technology provider specializing in algorithmic and analytical services in equities, FX and fixed-income.

The EBA's Recent Mystery Shopping Exercise Shows The Value This Tool Adds To The Supervisory Tasks Of National Authorities

Date 08/08/2023

• The exercise demonstrates the added value that mystery shopping can bring as a complementary tool to national competent authorities’ conventional supervisory actions and yields information and insight into the conduct of financial institutions that is not readily available through other means.
• Mystery shopping allows national competent authorities to obtain greater insight into the conduct of financial institutions, which in turn allows them to take corrective actions to better comply with applicable requirements, thus eventually enhancing the protection of consumers.
• This publication is the EBA’s fourth and final step in the fulfilment of its new mandate to coordinate mystery shopping activities of national competent authorities.