The Fifth AML Pillar – Ongoing Transaction Monitoring
Written by Don Lee FINCEN published its final long awaited ‘Customer Due Diligence Rule‘ (CDD) for covered financial institutions on May 11, 2016. FINCEN states there are four elements of the CDD that must be explicit in AML procedures. These include: (1) customer identification and verification; (2) beneficial ownership identification and verification; (3) understanding the nature and purpose of customer relationships to develop a customer profile; and (4) ongoing monitoring for suspicious transactions and, on a risk basis,...
read moreRaymond James fined $17 Million for AML & Prior AMLCO Fined and Suspended
Written by Don Lee FINRA announced today that it has fined Raymond James & Associates $17 Million for failures related to their Anti Money Laundering Programs as well as a personal fine for the prior AMLCO of $25,000 and 3 months suspension. The $17 Million fine was split $8 Million for Raymond James and Associates and $9 Million for Raymond James Financial Services. This is a recidivus action by RJA because they were previously sanctioned in 2012 for inadequate AML procedures, and as part of the settlement, RJA agreed to review its...
read moreFINRA warns BDs on AML & the Adequacy of Surveillance Systems
Written By: Don Lee FINRA’s Executive Vice President of enforcement Brad Bennett highlighted two trends that FINRA is seeing in enforcement during his speech at SIFMA’s AML and Financial Crimes conference. Firstly, he mentioned that firms must have an adequate system for monitoring suspicious activities. These systems must be properly calibrated, modified and tailored to the firm’s business model. He further said that firms should think about the various types of high risk activities flowing through their firms, and if...
read moreFINRA’s 2016 Examination Priorities and Technology
Written by Don Lee FINRA has published its Annual Examination Priorities letter for 2016. This is an annual letter for all FINRA member firms to help them prepare for upcoming examinations and helps others update their compliance programs. This year, FINRA has devoted an entire section to Technology which includes Cybersecurity, Technology Management and Data Quality and Governance. It is evident based on FINRA’s inclusion of Technology that many Broker Dealers are now utilizing technology automation systems as part of their...
read moreAre you effectively monitoring your trade desk?
Written by Don Lee Today Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $8.8 Million to settle charges for prearranged trading or “parking” that favored certain advisory client’s accounts. This was done with SG Americas the US subsidiary of the French conglomerate Societe Generale who was also fined $1 Million and the broker/ trader barred for 3 years for their involvement. This case was around the unlawful prearranging of trades by traders at both SG Americas and Morgan Stanley resulting in a snowball effect of SEC violations...
read moreBig Data, Broker Dealers and Regulators
Written by Don Lee In the recent Technology Tools for Today conference hosted by Investment News on November 2nd in Florida, Big Data was once again a topic among the financial community. The general consensus among the broker dealers present was “the additional uses of Big Data is likely to spur more attention from government and industry watchdogs”. Some participants said that the Big Data gathered was being used to offer compliance guidance looking at trends and using these to write better alerts. This highlights the...
read moreKYC Red Flag Automation
Written by Don Lee Fidelity Investments was fined $500,000 by FINRA and ordered to pay $530,000 in restitution to clients for not catching an impostor. This impostor Lisa Lewis who was previously fired from another firm, convinced her former clients that she was with Fidelity and to open accounts jointly with her. Fidelity was fined for not having caught this impostor as part of their supervision program with glaring KYC red flags such as the use of the same email address, home address and telephone numbers across multiple accounts. Most...
read morePress Release – New Trade Blotter Feature Released
Miami, Florida. November 2015 Press Release FinWebTech is pleased to announce the release of its new Trade Blotter management feature. This new feature added to the application’s Trading section allows firms to effectively manage Trade Blotter reviews at the Firm, OSJ, Branch and Rep levels. This new feature allows supervisors to document their trade blotter reviews, add notes and tasks to relevant personnel. FinWebTech’s CEO Don Lee said this feature will enhance firm’s trade blotter review process by maintaining it...
read morePress Release – Catalyst Automated Compliance Solution
Miami, Florida, November 2015 Press Release FinWebTech is pleased to announce that it has successfully deployed its flagship product Catalyst Automated Compliance Solution. Catalyst has completed its Beta trial phase and has been implemented in production at Broker Dealers located in Miami and New York. Catalyst has received excellent feedback from the Broker Dealer, Compliance Consulting and Legal industries as being a much needed tool to help firms manage the increasing regulatory requirements. FinWebTech’s Founder and CEO Don...
read moreHow much does your firm spend on Compliance … is it enough?
Written by Don Lee Is your firm spending enough on compliance? That has been one of the main questions over the last few years. Most firms compliance expenditure is primarily on their Chief Compliance Officer because it is a regulatory requirement, but is that enough? Its no secret that the revenues in the financial world have declined so much so that the big wire houses are cutting bonuses and implementing cost cutting measures with layoffs. Compliance officers have a new challenge to not only implement, maintain and enhance their compliance...
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