Financial Services

Investment advisers who have been around awhile know that the SEC, both independently and through case law, has defined and redefined what it means for an adviser to be a “fiduciary.” Kerry Zinn and Tanya Lambrechts discuss the SEC’s latest clarification on the term. Update:  After receiving thousands of comments from financial institutions, industry groups, advisers, investors and others, on...

Trading regulations on CVCs are due for a refresher course from FinCEN in light of recent penalties against a P2P crypto trader. NICE Actimize’s Ted Sausen discusses FinCEN’s recent combination of regulations, rulings and guidance around CVCs. On May 9, 2019, FinCEN issued guidance on the “Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Certain Business Models Involving Convertible Virtual Currencies.” While the...

The NYDFS cybersecurity requirements for financial services companies must be implemented this year, and one final phase remains. Are you ready?

In February, 31 State Attorneys signed a letter endorsing the identify theft rules and acknowledging the need for more secure authentication practices. OneSpan’s Michael Magrath discusses.

The use of clawbacks and malus provisions gained global momentum following the Enron and Worldcom scandals, but the financial services industry has been slow to follow suit. Allen & Overy’s Brian Jebb and Sarah Henchoz discuss. Compensation recovery provisions, commonly known as “clawbacks,” are an effective means to deter fraud and undue risk-taking by financial services C-suite executives, but they...

In this follow-up to a recent piece extolling the benefits of regtech, ACA Technology’s Burt Esrig provides insight into the state of enforcement in the financial services industry and why regtech is no longer optional. The adoption of regulatory compliance technology (regtech) has increased in recent years and the reason is clear: not only has the financial industry’s regulatory framework...

Technology is the future, and the future is now. Oracle’s Sonny Singh discusses how banks are using emerging technologies such as machine learning and graph analytics to improve financial crime investigations and compliance management. The complexity and cost of battling fraud, money laundering and other types of financial crime continues to compound for large enterprises – especially financial institutions. Criminals...

Bressler, Amery & Ross attorneys Kerry Zinn and Jacqueline Aleman discuss the SEC’s recent actions in light of the 2018 Share Class Disclosure (SCD) Initiative, which encourages self-reporting for 12b-1 conflict disclosures.  with co-author Jacqueline Aleman In February 2018, the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a self-reporting initiative for investment advisers who recommended,...

The regulatory technology (regtech) scene is exploding – last year, global regtech investment surpassed $1 billion. This tech can help compliance teams not only keep pace with regulatory changes, but also achieve a significant return on investment. Michael Lehman and Burt Esrig of ACA Technology discuss the various ways regtech can benefit financial services firms. It’s a new year, and...

Theta Lake’s Marc Gilman reviews some of the key points from a recent FINRA report that resonate for financial institutions and regtech providers. The end of 2018 found the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) busy issuing guidance on several fronts, including the release of a report on "Technology Based Innovations for Regulatory Compliance ("RegTech") in the Securities Industry" in September. The...

Eric Johnson, President of Global Investment Markets at Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) outlines six key forces driving change for the financial sector in the year ahead. The financial sector is used to transformation: markets fluctuate, and technology and regulations constantly outpace one another. 2019 is gearing up to be no different – a year defined by change. Here are six key forces...

Detecting potentially fraudulent customers and transactions and projecting compelling visual insights have traditionally been a rule-based model plus BI game zone. In this era of high-velocity and voluminous data, we have gradually adopted machine learning and advanced analytics in this space. Sanjukta Dhar of Tata Consultancy Services deep dives into the 15 most prominent analytical tools and techniques that are...