The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has taken the unusual step of siding with the industry--and a man it is suing--in trying to stop the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from encroaching into futures regulation.
The just-signed Dodd-Frank Act has turned out to include a little-noticed provision that sets up mutual fund whistleblowers for a payday, according to CR sister publication Fund Action.
Compliance officers at foreign firms operating in the U.S. will face unique challenges in ensuring their institutions follow Wall Street reforms.
A Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association task force is preparing a proposal on a fiduciary duty for broker/dealers.
The National Association of Independent Broker/Dealers has urged the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to reconsider implementing its proposed rule on encrypting portable media because of the compliance burden.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court had appeared to settle the uncertainty over the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. securities laws with its ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank.
An administrative law judge has taken the Securities and Exchange Commission's Enforcement Division to task for quietly launching a second probe of Morgan Keegan that apparently violated the agency's internal rules of conduct.
The U.K. Financial Services Authority's turnaround time for approved person applications has lengthened recently from 1-2 days to around two weeks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is zeroing in on books and records and internal controls provisions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Citigroup will assemble a task force headed by a senior business person, not a compliance officer or a lawyer, as it scrambles to keep abreast of the coming onslaught of rules and laws posed by the financial reform overhaul, according to Michael Helfer, general counsel and corporate secretary.
The Securities and Exchange Commission imposed stiffer penalties against Richard Campanella, the former chief compliance officer and later president of vFinance Investments, by barring him after he appealed an administrative law judge's decision to fine him $30,000 over allegations that he willfully violated recordkeeping and production requirements, as well as aided and abetted similar violations.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations will collaborate more with the agency's other divisions and offices when designing and executing sweeps, Carlo di Florio, director of OCIE, told CR.
Members of the European Parliament's influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) will seek talks with the U.K. authorities over how the country's planned new regulatory architecture will affect implementation of tough EU rules on bankers' pay and bonuses.
Bob Beauchamp, head of regulation at the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, has left the exchange and is expected to take up a senior role in the Financial Services Authority's enforcement division, dealing with wholesale issues.
The Securities and Exchange Commission wants certain investment advisers in New York and New Jersey to tell it about any employee who has been terminated during the past year.
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority hearing panel has permanently barred Edward Brokaw, a former broker who worked in the Greenwich, Conn., branch office of Deutsche Bank Securities.
Compliance officers at retail brokerages are taking steps to prepare their firms to be held to a fiduciary standard, even while it is far from settled that such a standard will be imposed on them.
The financial reform bill has already cranked up the job market for compliance officers.
Firms are struggling to come to grips with the growing demands of e-discovery, which requires them to produce often vast amounts of electronically stored discovery in civil litigation.
The number of suspicious activity reports fell slightly last year, the first decline since 1996.
Over the past several months, the Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted two new circuit breaker restrictions.
State securities regulators are gearing up for a wave of investment advisory firms looking to register.
Prudential legal and compliance officials are looking to revamp the firm's approach to social media Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter as part of a broader push to allow registered representatives at Prudential's broker/dealers to use such outlets to drum up business.
Stockbrokers and independent financial advisers face having to answer to separate authorities under the U.K.'s regulatory overhaul, increasing the workloads of compliance officers, including those at U.S. institutions operating in the country.
Prisma Capital Partners has hired Anne Wynne as the firm's first general counsel.
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to review the need for different sets of rules across exchanges to address volatility and liquidity issues.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's latest annual examination priorities letter, released in March, is a must-read for all broker/dealers.
The U.K. Financial Services Authority is set to launch a consultation on authorized firms' use of client money audit reports later this year.
With the FSA headed to the boneyard and the Old Lady becoming a top cop again, the editors of Compliance Reporter have compiled an indispensible cheat sheet for compliance officers who may be unfamiliar with the cultural differences.
A coalition of industry groups has criticized guidance on beneficial ownership from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other agencies as being out-of-step with current Bank Secrecy Act requirements for securities and futures firms and not appropriately tailored to their businesses.
The Ontario Securities Commission has barred Robert Levack, former chief compliance officer at Sextant Capital Management, for 10 years and fined him C$15,000 over an alleged failure to address or report multiple alleged securities violations at Sextant.
In April 2010, the U.K. Financial Services Authority published draft guidance on when persons might be "acting in concert" or deemed to hold voting power under its controller regime.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is looking to hire roughly two dozen people across the country to serve as the frontline point of contact between firms and the regulator.
One of the greatest challenges firms now face in information security is being able to wed their security plans to their business goals.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is experimenting with a new way to gauge which of the thousands of currently uninspected investment advisers should be examined next.
Industry officials are sounding early sirens about the potential compliance costs of the Securities and Exchange Commission's back-to-back plans to require new reporting about large traders and create a consolidated audit trail.
Compliance officers at U.K. and U.S. firms operating under the Financial Services Authority's watch are struggling with client money segregation rules.
Compliance officers at investment management firms need to be alert to performance-based accounts getting more lucrative trades than flat-flee accounts, and preferred funds being exempted from expense charges, according to Norm Champ, associate regional director for examinations in the Securities and Exchange Commission's New York office.
Exchanges and self-regulatory organizations need to iron out small differences between their plans to implement single-stock circuit breaker pilot programs aimed at preventing a repeat of the May 6 flash crash, according to Christopher Nagy, managing director of order strategy at TD Ameritrade.
This week’s Ask An Attorney looks at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new short sale circuit breaker rule.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has placed municipal interest rate swaps among its enforcement priorities.
The long-awaited update to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's supervision rules will give firms more latitude in deciding how they supervise than originally proposed.
TD Ameritrade has hired James Reilly to be chief compliance office for its holding company.
The North American Securities Administrators Association has urged the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to go further in expanding the information released via the self-regulatory organization's BrokerCheck Web site.
The Canadian Securities Administrators and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada have unveiled a number of initiatives to tackle concerns and questions raised over developments in market structure, such as dark pools.
James Shorris became executive director of enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority earlier this year after Susan Merrill stepped down to return to private practice.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will have an easier time clamping down on market manipulation thanks to a little-noticed amendment to the sweeping financial reform package passed by the Senate.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is spending more time investigating tips about potential wrongdoing outside its jurisdiction.
Compliance officers, facing growing scrutiny from regulators of their anti-graft efforts, are looking to internal communications, including informal talks and training, to keep their firms out of trouble.
The U.K. coalition government's plans to revamp regulation will lead to upheaval, extra work and potentially confusion for compliance teams at U.K. and U.S. firms operating in London, according to industry professionals.
Woodbury Financial Services has hired Albert Johnson as chief compliance officer of its broker/dealer business. Johnson, who started with the firm on May 10, took over from Mark Eide, CCO of Woodbury's investment adviser platform.
Imagine or perhaps recall this common scenario: your company has identified an exciting and promising emerging market for your products or services.
Robert Marchman, head of enforcement at NYSE Regulation, is slated to join the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as part of FINRA's planned takeover of NYSE Regulation's market surveillance and enforcement functions.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ended its practice of all-encompassing mandatory reviews, spelling possible relief from inspections into areas that pose little or no risk.
Roughly half of firms in the U.S. and around the world fail to keep databases detailing fraud incidents and investigations, according to an Ernst & Young survey of financial institutions and other companies.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority should form a national standing committee to look into disputes about information on its BrokerCheck Web site, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's small business committee.
Regulatory professionals in London say plans by the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government to give the Bank of England a greater role in micro-prudential supervision could lead to BoE officials taking part in exams and sweeps led by the Financial Services Authority.
The payment of finder's fees has been a thorny issue over many years for those needing to regulate it, issuers looking for help in raising capital, broker/dealers willing to share their fees and intermediaries seeking to be paid for their services.
Firms and individuals should not expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to wait around before publicizing an enforcement against them.