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.
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.
The indictment Wednesday of an online black market for narcotics and weapons vendors could further hamper proponents of a growing digital currency in the eyes of bank compliance officers.
In his 12-year career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Daniel W. Levy has investigated and prosecuted several banks, bankers, and financial services advisors that facilitated the evasion of U.S. taxes through the use of complicit offshore financial institutions.
Defense attorneys are hoping to overturn convictions against their clients in dozens of money laundering, drug and other cases that they say may have been based on undisclosed national security data.
Examiners from the nation's top regulators of broker-dealers are investigating whether HSBC Securities USA sufficiently scrutinized and reported suspicious transactions, according to an individual with knowledge of the matter.
The nation's largest private securities regulator penalized Oppenheimer & Co. more than $1.4 million for violations related to penny stock trades, a fine that could spur smaller firms to review for similar problems.
As investment firms look toward new markets to turn a profit, the individuals charged with auditing their compliance program should take note. Bad audits remain a common thread of costly regulatory penalties.
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.
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.
The number of fines levied by the U.S. nongovernmental regulator of securities and brokerage firms more than doubled in the first five months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
A U.S. Treasury Department effort to better ensure the confidentiality of suspicious activity reports contributed to a delay in regulatory penalties by the nation's non-governmental regulator of brokerage firms.
The chief self-regulatory organization examining broker-dealers for anti-money laundering compliance is again allowed to have direct access to suspicious activity reports, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed Thursday.