News
Audits of Securities Firms Should Account for International Growth, Political Events: Consultants
printRelated News
American lawmakers should increase the annual budget of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in an effort to better police the nation's growing pool of investment firms, an official said Tuesday.
America's oldest private bank will pay $8 million to settle regulatory anti-money laundering violations, the largest such fine imposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Recent regulatory guidance on banks use of consultants for anti-money laundering remediation work places a renewed focus on the personal connections that can affect the independence of consultants, according to compliance professionals.
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.
Penny stock fraud and soon-to-be introduced customer due diligence regulations should be foremost on the minds of compliance officers at small securities firms, believes Kenneth Cherrier, senior vice president and chief supervisory officer at Overland, KS-based Waddell & Reed, Inc.
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.
U.S. law enforcement officials and regulators have queried the nation's financial intelligence unit about securities settlements that use the world's top financial messaging platform, according to the agency's director.
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.
Securities regulators are likely to increasingly penalize firms that fail to identify the beneficial owners of accounts controlled by so-called "master" accounts, according to Alma Angotti, the former senior counsel in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's enforcement department.
The largest nongovernmental regulator of U.S. securities firms has expelled a Westlake Village, CA-based company for failing to implement anti-money laundering controls, the organization said Monday.
Three securities industry associations are asking the U.S. Treasury Department to revamp guidance to financial institutions on when to obtain beneficial ownership data from corporations, trusts and private investment companies.
Despite apparent money laundering risks in the securities sector, the number of related suspicious transaction reports filed by financial institutions remains "relatively low" worldwide, according an intergovernmental report released Monday.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a Michigan brokerage firm $225,000 for securities violations and poor anti-money laundering controls, the second such enforcement action against a broker this year.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the securities industry's self regulatory body, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, began investigations into five of Fidelity's SEC-registered entities last summer, a Fidelity spokeswoman said.
Terrorists, once dependent on state sponsorship, are increasingly using front companies to invest in securities markets to finance their activities, according to U.S. government officials.
Roughly one-third of the 2,500 firms examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to properly identify customers, report suspicious activity, or conduct tests for AML vulnerabilities. Nonetheless, brokers had fewer overall deficiencies in their AML programs in 2006 than last year.
