Category: Fines

In its disciplinary action document, the regulator said the violations occurred over a seven-year period from October 2015 to December 2022 and involved more than 4.2 million transactions in options and issued options. Free-riding, a prohibited practice under U.S. securities regulations, involves customers buying and selling securities before paying for them in options and issued…

The regulator added that the fine is part of a larger $250,000 settlement which was resolved “simultaneously with similar matters.”  FINRA states: "Regulation M under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in relevant part, makes it unlawful for underwriters, broker-dealers, and other distribution participants to directly or indirectly 'bid for, purchase, or attempt to induce…

The SFC investigation is said to have found that Ever-Long fell short in conducting due diligence, disclosing material issues, and ensuring the accuracy of the Application Proof submitted for Coastal’s listing.  The regulator explained that key failures included neglecting to verify the rationale and legality of a leasing arrangement central to Coastal's business model, which…

The fine was for inaccuracies in its short interest positions reporting and deficiencies in its supervisory systems.  According to FINRA, the violations spanned over 16 years, from June 2008 to August 2024, involving approximately 820,000 short interest positions totalling 77 billion shares. The regulator found that J.P. Morgan both overreported and underreported short interest data…

The fine comes as FINRA says UBS-FS failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system to oversee the short-term trading of syndicate preferred stocks. Between January 2017 and December 2018, UBS-FS representatives are said to have recommended short-term trades in syndicate preferred stocks to retail customers.  According to the regulator, this resulted in financial losses…

The regulator said the penalty comes after an investigation into deficiencies in CITIC's transaction monitoring systems between November 2015 and July 2018. The HKMA found that CITIC's automated transaction monitoring system had failed to generate alerts for suspicious transactions due to errors in detection and core model rules. Additionally, they state that CITIC also failed…

The regulator said in a filing that the New York-based firm, specialising in underwriting, has also been censured and required to implement a supervisory system to address these shortcomings. The fine stems from LifeSci Capital's role as lead underwriter in the initial public offering of LifeSci Acquisition II Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC),…

The regulator said the bank failed to prevent misconduct by its relationship managers (RMs) during 24 over-the-counter (OTC) bond transactions between November 2018 and September 2019. The penalty follows a review of pricing and disclosure practices in Singapore's private banking sector. The misconduct is said to have involved RMs making inaccurate or incomplete disclosures to…