UBS Financial Services was slapped with a record $125 million joint civil penalty by four regulatory agencies for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, including a failure to implement and maintain an anti-money laundering compliance program and failure to file suspicious activity reports.
Financial Services
Posted inBanking
ECB wants top bank CEOs to set out plans for AI-related cyber risks
The European Central Bank has written to the CEOs of Europe’s top banks to ask what plans they have in place to deal with potential AI-related cybersecurity threats.
Posted inFinancial Services
Streamlined reporting rules will save U.K. financial services industry $145.3 million per year, says FCA
The U.K.’s financial regulator has simplified the requirements around transaction reporting—which helps detect market abuse and other financial crimes—as part of a drive to cut “duplicative or low-value reporting.”
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC targets RIA’s failure to deduct broker-dealer compensation from client advisory fees
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has highlighted a compliance failure in a New York registered investment adviser’s handling of client advisory fees that its affiliated broker-dealer received from third-party private fund managers. From 2019 to January 2022, Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management, a New York registered investment adviser with $358 million in assets under management, […]
Posted inFinancial Services
Review into EU fund managers highlights compliance, internal audit ‘vulnerabilities’
Feedback from regulators across the EU has found that some fund managers’ compliance and internal audit functions could be sidelined, under-resourced, and lack independence.
Posted inFinancial Services
In enforcement action against broker-dealer, SEC deems monthly compliance check with net capital rule not good enough
Texas broker-dealer Hext Capital Partners and its owner and chief executive officer, Gregory Hext, have agreed to pay $60,000 to settle allegations that the firm violated the net capital requirements of the Securities Exchange Act.
Posted inBest Practices
Practitioner lessons from Prudential Life of Japan’s scandal
Prudential Life Insurance’s scandal in Japan attracted limited attention in the West when it broke in January, but six months on, it has become one of the most consequential compliance failures seen this year.
Posted inSanctions
FCA calls out good and poor practices in sanctions reporting
Financial firms have made progress in preventing sanctions breaches, but serious gaps in governance and compliance remain, which are likely to result in keener regulatory scrutiny and potentially more penalties in the future, say experts.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Kalshi, CFTC clash with states over prediction market jurisdiction
The fight over who regulates prediction markets continues as the CFTC filed a lawsuit against another state for its attempt to cement its jurisdiction on these companies. One of these companies, Kalshi, fought back as well, suing the state of Illinois, adding to the growing list of legal battles over this still-emerging sector.
Posted inOpinion
Chris Clarke, CCO at Bloomsbury Money, explains why asset tokenization and risk-based compliance are key FS trends
An early role in AML and due diligence in a client-facing role gave Chris Clarke his first taste of compliance. His background in Jersey, an international financial center that services global markets, made financial services an obvious choice.