Category: Regulation

equiti logo
January 15, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Equiti Gains In-Principle Approval to Launch Investment Fund

It marks the inaugural product under its newly introduced platform, Equiti Wealth, aimed at offering diverse wealth management solutions tailored to long-term investment needs. The Equiti Global Balanced Fund is designed to provide investors with access to a wide array of professionally managed funds, with a minimum investment threshold set at $1,000.  "Today signifies a…

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January 15, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

CFPB Sues Capital One: Says Company Cheated Consumers Out of Over $2bn in Interest Payments

The lawsuit alleges that Capital One deceived customers about its 360 Savings accounts, promising "best" and "highest" interest rates while freezing those rates at low levels despite rising interest rates across the market. The CFPB further claims that Capital One simultaneously introduced a similar product, the 360 Performance Savings account. This is said to have…

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Robinhood app on mobile
January 14, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Robinhood to Pay SEC £45m in Penalties

The SEC order found that Robinhood failed to comply with a broad spectrum of regulations.  These are said to include delays in investigating and reporting suspicious transactions, inadequate measures to safeguard customer data from identity theft, and failing to adequately address a cybersecurity breach that compromised user data.  “Today’s order finds that two Robinhood firms…

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FINRA
January 10, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Investments for You Fined $25,000 for Supervisory Failures

The Ohio-based broker-dealer was found to have violated several FINRA rules between June 2020 and September 2024. According to FINRA’s investigation, Investments for You did not implement policies to comply with Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), which mandates brokers to act in the best interest of retail customers.  “Investments for You failed to establish and…

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January 09, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Easy Exchange Registration as Small Payment Institution Cancelled by FCA

The regulator’s action follows the firm's inability to meet essential conditions under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs). Easy Exchange, which was registered to provide money remittance services, failed to submit the required annual regulatory reports, known as FSA057 returns, for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023.  Despite repeated reminders and warnings from the FCA,…

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FINRA building
January 09, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Fidelity Brokerage Services Hit with $600,000 Fine

The fine comes as the regulator said the company failed to adequately supervise its employees' access to client data and the transmittal of funds from international stock plan services (SPS) accounts.  The violations, spanning from December 2012 to October 2020, resulted in an associated person converting approximately $750,000 from 37 international plan participants. FINRA's investigation…

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January 08, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

Saxo Bank Fined €1.6 Million by AFM

The violations occurred between January 2021 and April 2023. They reportedly involved inadequate asset segregation, poor risk management, and unsatisfactory customer treatment during BinckBank's migration to Saxo Bank. The AFM investigation was prompted by consumer complaints and a critical assurance report from BinckBank's accountant. Customers reported delayed transactions, incorrect charges, and missing shares. The AFM…

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FINRA building
January 03, 2025 BY Sam Boughedda

BofA Fined £250,000 by FINRA

The fine stems from lapses identified between February 2018 and June 2023. BofA Securities reportedly failed to meet the requirements of the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) on several counts. According to FINRA, the firm failed to report approximately 5,200 transactions in TRACE-eligible securities in a timely manner. This included late reporting of agency…

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December 31, 2024 BY Sam Boughedda

UBS Financial Services Fined $1.1m by FINRA for Rule Violations

The violations are said to have involved more than 330 million trade confirmations issued between February 2014 and November 2024, which contained misleading or incomplete disclosures regarding average trade prices. FINRA found that UBS either incorrectly indicated that a trade price "may" be an average price when it was not or failed to disclose that…

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Interactive Brokers
December 31, 2024 BY Sam Boughedda

FINRA Fines Interactive Brokers $2.25m for Supervisory Failures

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…

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