United States

Market Abuse

FINRA Fines BofA & Merrill Lynch $3m for Surveillance Failures

By Nithya Subramanian | 04/09/2024

FINRA said the parameters of the surveillance systems were set too narrowly, leading to failures to detect potentially manipulative trading.

PEPs & Sanctions

China Payments Becoming Increasingly Difficult for Russia

By Editors | 02/09/2024

Chinese banks are returning payments for goods already shipped; Chinese exporters asking for pre-payments; UAE banks rejecting payments for Russia-China trade.

Cryptocurrency

Nasdaq Seeks Regulatory Approval to Launch Bitcoin Options

By Editors | 31/08/2024

Nasdaq said the options will enable investors to hedge their cryptocurrency investments. NYSE also applied for a similar approval earlier this year.

Trading & Investment

US SEC Adopts New Reporting Rules for Investment Funds

By Editors | 31/08/2024

Mutual funds and ETFs will have to report portfolio holdings monthly rather than quarterly. Swing pricing rules weren’t included in the amendments.

Supervision & Enforcement

CFTC Penalises Nasdaq Futures Over False Disclosures

By Editors | 30/08/2024

Nasdaq Futures, which operated an energy commodity futures market from 2015-2018, did not fully disclose details of an incentive programme.

Market Abuse

CFTC Fines Swiss Energy Trader $48m for Market Manipulation

By Nithya Subramanian | 30/08/2024

TOTSA TotalEnergies Trading sold physical EBOB at below-market prices to benefit its large short position in the futures market.

Cryptocurrency

US SEC Settles Charges Against Crypto Firm Abra

By Editors | 30/08/2024

The SEC said Abra operated as an unregistered investment company and sold a retail crypto asset lending product that should have been registered.

Anti-Money Laundering

FinCEN Finalises AML Rules for Investment Advisers, Real Estate

By Manesh Samtani | 30/08/2024

Based on feedback to the February proposals, the final rules walk back certain measures to reduce potential burdens on businesses.

Tokenisation

US SEC Planning Legal Action Against NFT Platform OpenSea

By Editors | 29/08/2024

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said the SEC is threatening to sue because “they believe NFTs on our platform are securities”.