Bari Havlik is the Executive Vice President, Member Supervision and leads FINRA’s Member Regulation program, which includes surveillance and examination programs for member firms. Previously, she was a Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for The Charles Schwab Corporation. She received her undergraduate degree from DePaul University.
Subject: Thomas Gira
Subject of Interest
Thomas Gira is the Executive Vice President, Market Regulation and Transparency Services. Gira is the Executive Vice President of Market Regulation and Transparency Services. He received his law degree from the University of Maryland. Before joining FINRA in 1992, Gira was an Associate General Counsel of The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. Prior to that, he was Branch Chief for Options and Derivative Products Regulation within the Division of Market Regulation at the SEC.
Subject: Todd T. Diganci
Subject of Interest
Todd T. Diganci is the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of FINRA. Diganci received his bachelor’s degree in accounting & computer information systems and an MBA from Drake University. Diganci is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University’s Business School. He currently serves on the Board of the SIFMA Investor Education Foundation.
Subject: Robert L.D. Colby
Subject of Interest
Robert L.D. Colby is the Chief Legal Officer of FINRA, Robert Colby oversees FINRA’s rulemaking, interpretive and corporate legal functions, as well as Advertising, Corporate Financing and Dispute Resolution Departments, and FINRA’s Hearings and Appellate Offices. Colby received his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. Before joining FINRA, Mr. Colby was a partner in the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, as well as served as Deputy Director in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets.
Subject: Marcia E. Asquith
Subject of Interest
Marcia E. Asquith is the Executive Vice President, Board and External Relations, oversees the Office of the Corporate Secretary, as well as the offices of Investor Education, Member Relations and Education, Government Affairs, Corporate Communications and International. She received her JD from the College of William & Mary School of Law. Prior to joining FINRA, Ms. Asquith served for seven years as Counsel to the Senate Agriculture Committee under Chairman Richard Lugar.
Subject: Robert W. Cook
Subject of Interest
Robert W. Cook is the President and CEO of FINRA, and Chairman of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1992, a Master of Science in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the London School of Economics in 1989, and an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard College in 1988. From 2010 to 2013, Cook served as the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
#UNRIG Video (34:46): Naked Short Selling Interview #3 – Susanne Trimbath on $100 Trillion Wall Street Crime Spree
Video
Data: FINRA Daily Text Files of Short Sales
DataApril 2020 Reg SHO Daily Files
Pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission request, FINRA has agreed to make reported short sale trade data publicly available. Daily Short Sale Volume File formatting guide. Please note that in rare instances, files may be updated on the next business day. Original files will be retained and updated files will be identified as “Updated”.
Article: SEC Delays CAT Deadline for Broker-Dealers Amid COVID-19
Article - MediaSEC Delays CAT Deadline for Broker-Dealers Amid COVID-19
Celeste Skinner
FinanceMagnates, 21 April 2020
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet again pushed back the date for when broker-dealers will need to report data to the regulator’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), allowing firms to instead focus their efforts on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having on their businesses.
In a statement published on Monday, the US regulator said that it had voted in favour of issuing two exemptive orders in which it will move the CAT implementation forward, with the first action required on the 22nd of June, 2020.
Barred: Martin David Batstone Barred by FINRA
BarredMartin David Batstone Barred by FINRA
An Offer of Settlement was issued in which Batstone was barred from association with any FINRA member in all capacities. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Batstone consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings that he willfully violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a)-(c) thereunder, and violated FINRA Rule 2020 by transferring $11,100 in customer funds to his personal bank accounts and using the funds for his personal expenditures.
Paper: Market Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care
PaperMarket Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care
Market manipulation of emerging or small cap companies is pervaasive on Wall Street and according to the SEC has increased over 37% in the last decade. The nature and scope of market manipulation schemes is limited only by the creativity and audacity of their perpetrators. While the substance and mechanics of market manipulation schemes may differ, the objective is the same – to inject false information into the marketplace that artificially affects the price of the target companies securities by “interfering with the natural interplay of the forces of supply and demand.” The proliferation of market manipulation scshemes has created challenging risk-management and best practice issues for the directors of targeted companies, which require directors to continuously assess the nature and scope of their fiduciary duty of care.
Continue reading “Paper: Market Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care”
Article: U.S. broker sanctioned for failing to guard against market manipulation
Article - Media, PublicationsU.S. broker sanctioned for failing to guard against market manipulation
James Langton, 23 December 2019
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has been sanctioned by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and a trio of U.S. exchanges for supervisory violations that allowed possible market manipulation.
The firm has been fined a combined US$6.5 million for a variety of violations that stemmed from providing direct market access that allowed certain clients to engage in potentially manipulative trading activity, including spoofing, layering and wash trading. Continue reading “Article: U.S. broker sanctioned for failing to guard against market manipulation”
Article: FINRA, Exchanges Blast Credit Suisse Over Failure to Prevent Market Manipulation
Article - Media, PublicationsFINRA, Exchanges Blast Credit Suisse Over Failure to Prevent Market Manipulation
Jeff Berman, 23 December 2019
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets all censured Credit Suisse Securities and fined the firm $6.5 million for supervisory and Securities Exchange Act of 1934/Market Access Rule violations after repeated failures to prevent market manipulation, FINRA said Monday.
Credit Suisse signed a letter of acceptance, waiver and consent on Nov. 18 in which it agreed to the censure and $6.5 million fine, of which $566,583 is to be paid to FINRA for violating multiple rules. FINRA accepted the letter Nov. 19.
A Credit Suisse spokesman on Monday said only that the firm was “pleased to have resolved these matters with FINRA and these exchanges.” Continue reading “Article: FINRA, Exchanges Blast Credit Suisse Over Failure to Prevent Market Manipulation”
Article: FINRA and major Exchanges impose $6.5m fine on Credit Suisse Securities over supervisory violations
UncategorizedFINRA and major Exchanges impose $6.5m fine on Credit Suisse Securities over supervisory violations
Maria Nikolova
FinanceFeeds, 23 December 2019
FINRA and the Exchanges found that for a period of four years, Credit Suisse did not establish a supervisory system reasonably designed to monitor for potential spoofing, layering, wash sales and pre-arranged trading by its DMA clients.
Article: Solidus Raises $3 Million in Seed Financing to Tackle Digital Asset Market Manipulation
Article - Media, PublicationsSolidus Raises $3 Million in Seed Financing to Tackle Digital Asset Market Manipulation
Business Wire, 25 February 2019
Solidus Labs, provider of a machine learning-powered trade surveillance platform tailored for digital assets, secured a $3 million seed round of financing led by Hanaco Ventures. Additional participants in the round include Global Founders Capital, as well as angel investors and Wall Street veterans David Krell and Norman Sorensen. With the proceeds Solidus’ team of former Goldman Sachs engineers is set to address a major challenge preventing greater institutional and mainstream adoption of digital assets – trade manipulation and market integrity.
Solidus’ web-based platform is already deployed with diverse clients including exchanges, broker-dealers, hedge funds and market makers in Europe, the United States and Israel. The funding round will be used to continue expanding the company’s engineering and machine learning teams, as well as sales, marketing and customer success operations. Solidus is accommodating growing demand from digital asset firms, as those strive to satisfy intensifying regulatory oversight and high compliance standards of traditional financial institutions. Continue reading “Article: Solidus Raises $3 Million in Seed Financing to Tackle Digital Asset Market Manipulation”
