SEC

Citigroup recently agreed to pay more than $19 million in fines to the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for mortgage-related issues and unauthorized trading. 

The Fed fined the bank $8.6 million, citing improper handling of residential mortgage-related documents, while the SEC levied $10.5 million in fines against the company over allegations that employees engaged in unauthorized proprietary trading, and for failing to detect fraudulent loans issued by one of its subsidiaries.  

Read on to find out more about the settlements.

A new task force initiated by an executive order from President Donald Trump is intended to fight fraud through the combined efforts of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission, as well as other government agencies and officials.

The task force is the latest in a series of similar coalitions created by previous administrations.

Find out more about the functions and leadership structure of the new cooperative entity.

The method by which companies file operational financial statement information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will change over the next three years as the agency phases in rule amendments mandating the use of Inline XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) for such filings.

The adoption of Inline XBRL, which is both human- and machine-readable for the purposes of validation, aggregation and analysis, is part of the SEC’s ongoing disclosure modernization initiative.

Read on to learn more about the new mandates.

Eight bipartisan bills targeting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s policies regarding investors and investment activity recently received approval from the House Financial Services Committee via voice vote.

The legislative pieces would require changes intended to facilitate regulatory flexibility, small business investment, protecting senior investors, market expansion and corporate transparency to help guard against insider trading.

Find out more information about the legislative measures headed for a full House vote.

Bringing together professionals from all spokes of the real estate industry in one location always has been the focus of the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3).

For the 2018 installment, keynote speaker Alessandro DiNello, president and CEO of Flagstar Bank, brought to the podium the perspective of an industry leader who has worn a number of different hats throughout his career.

From a regulatory perspective to technology and all points in between, find out how DiNello and his company successfully navigated a gauntlet of obstacles and are now thriving. 

The House Financial Services Committee has advanced nine bills during the past month, four of which received unanimous approval, bringing the total number of bills it has reported during this session of Congress to 108.

The committee approved three bills in late May and another six earlier this month, covering a broad spectrum of issues applicable to various corners of the financial marketplace.

Find out what each measure proposes to do and how much support and/or opposition lies ahead.

Alleging that he repeatedly placed illegal trades using confidential information, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently charged an investment bank employee with engaging in insider trading.

The trades the employee made approximately $140,000 from trades he initiated in advance of deals for which the bank was providing investment advisory services.

Find out more about the charges and what is being required of the defendant.

The five federal regulators have proposed numerous changes to the Volcker Rule intended to reduce compliance burdens for financial entities.

By eliminating or modifying requirements the agencies believe are unnecessary to effectively implement the rule’s provisions, regulators hope to streamline it without diminishing the safety and soundness of banking entities.

Find out details about what the regulators are proposing to change and what impact the proposal could have on the industry.

Cybersecurity and the decline in enforcement activity at the Securities and Exchange Commission  were among the topics the agency’s co-directors of enforcement Stephanie Avakian and Steven Peiken touched on during a recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities and Investments.

During the hearing, the officials fielded questions about their views on the National Institute of Standards and Technology  cybersecurity framework and the agency’s reduction in enforcement activity since 2016.

Find out more about what was discussed during the hearing.

Two Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement officials recently testified that a June 2017 Supreme Court decision inhibits the agency’s ability to recover ill-gotten gains for investors by time-barring disgorgements.

Stephanie Avakian and Steven Peiken, co-directors of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, detailed their position on the matter during a hearing before a House Financial Services Committee subcommittee.

Find out more details about the impact the high court’s decision will have on federal regulators’ enforcement abilities going forward.