To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
On December 9, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled an enforcement action against ICE Data Pricing & Reference Data LLC (PRD), a global securities pricing service and registered investment adviser, for compliance deficiencies relating to its client delivery of prices based on quotes it received from a single market participant, also known as single broker quotes. PRD agreed to pay $8 million to settle the charges.
According to the SEC s order, from at least 2015 through September 2020, PRD delivered prices based on single broker quotes to its clients, while failing to adopt and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to address the risk that these prices would not reasonably reflect the value of the securities.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
SEC Fines Investment Adviser $170 Million for Multiple Disclosure Failures. UK-based investment adviser BlueCrest Capital Management Limited (BlueCrest) recently agreed to return $170 million to former investors to settle charges levied by the SEC involving disclosure failures, material misstatements, and misleading omissions. The SEC found that BlueCrest quietly transferred its top traders from its flagship client fund, BlueCrest Capital International (BCI), to an internal fund and left trading for the client fund in the hands of a trading algorithm that was set up to replicate some of the trading activity of BlueCrest’s live traders. Unfortunately for BCI investors, the algorithm, by and large, underperformed and resulted in inferior returns.
REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS
On December 15, the FDIC approved a final rule to revise and modernize its regulations relating to brokered deposits. The final rule establishes a new framework for analyzing whether deposits made through deposit arrangements qualify as brokered deposits, including those between insured depository institutions (IDIs) and third parties, such as financial technology companies. Specifically, the final rule:
Clarifies when a person meets the deposit broker definition in a way that provides clear rules by which banks and third parties can evaluate whether particular activities cause deposits to be considered brokered;
Identifies a number of bright-line categories (called “designated exceptions” which include deposits where the agent has less than 25% of the total “assets under administration” for its customers; health savings accounts; deposits related to certain real estate and mortgage servicing transactions; certain retirement funds; and customer fund