A majority of the brokers examined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of an inquiry into the sale of low-priced stocks were found to have serious compliance deficiencies, the agency said Thursday. In an advisory, the SEC said that most of the 22 brokerages investigated in a "targeted sweep" of the microcap stock industry had inadequate compliance programs in place to trigger reviews of unregistered securities sales and file suspicious activity reports when warranted. Separately on Thursday, the SEC announced an enforcement action against current and former subsidiaries of E*Trade Financial Corporation for improperly conducting unregistered...
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a deeper look at suspicious activity reports following an overhaul of the federal database of Bank Secrecy Act regulatory filings, according to an agency official.
Plans by the U.S. securities market regulator to more strictly enforce regulations will result in a jump in anti-money laundering penalties both by the agency and its private sector partner.
Changes to how and how often securities firms report suspicious activity are helping to clarify the scope of a long-familiar financial crime: microcap fraud.
A New York brokerage firm violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to report suspicious activity related to a scheme to bilk third-party investors, securities regulators said Tuesday.
Two rules adopted Wednesday by the chief U.S. securities regulator may obligate banks to scrutinize public disclosures of their manufacturing and oil, gas and mining accountholders, say analysts.
E*Trade has been fined $1 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for inadequate anti-money laundering policies and procedures. The action follows on a $1 million penalty levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission six months ago against the on-line brokerage.
The securities industry's chief regulator fined online trading firm E-Trade $1 million for failing to verify the identity of tens of thousands of customers, a key tenet of federal anti-money laundering regulations.
print