Article: Deutsche Bank Revamps Controls as New Lapses Threaten Turnaround

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Deutsche Bank Revamps Controls as New Lapses Threaten Turnaround

Steven Arons, 15 June 2021

Deutsche Bank AG revamped the units seeking to detect and prevent financial crimes after a number of recent compliance issues risk undermining progress in Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing’s turnaround plan.

Chief Administrative Officer Stefan Simon, in a memo to employees Tuesday, announced a reorganization of his business into six units, with the aim of reshaping the bank’s anti financial crime efforts. As part of the changes, Mary Kirwan, a former Credit Suisse Group AG executive, and Jan-Gerrit Iken from Commerzbank AG will join. Continue reading “Article: Deutsche Bank Revamps Controls as New Lapses Threaten Turnaround”

Article: SEC Launches Review Of High-Frequency Traders’ Market Abuses

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SEC Launches Review Of High-Frequency Traders’ Market Abuses

Tyler Durden, 09 June 2021

Nearly 8 years have passed since Michael Lewis published “Flash Boys”, raising awareness of the relatively new practice of high-frequency trading and its transformative impact on markets, allowing the most technologically-advanced traders to effectively see a picture of the market that’s nanoseconds ahead of what their non-NFT peers see, giving them a massive advantage.

Now, the SEC is finally considering changing the rules of how stocks are priced and traded to stop exchanges from incentivizing brokers (nowadays, particularly retail trading brokerages that have seen an explosion of activity in the past couple of years).

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Article: Online safety bill ‘will fail to protect millions from cloned websites and ad scams’

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Online safety bill ‘will fail to protect millions from cloned websites and ad scams’

Hilary Osborne, 15 May 2021

The UK government’s online safety bill will “fail to protect millions” by leaving people at risk of falling victim to cloned websites and adverts paid for by fraudsters, experts warned this week.

The bill, included in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech, will “lead the way in ensuring internet safety for all”, according to the government.However, finance experts said its focus on user-generated content, such as social media posts involving romance scams or fake investment opportunities, left a loophole for criminals.

Debbie Barton, a financial crime prevention expert at the investment firm Quilter, said the bill would have a big impact on protecting investors, particularly young people, from financial harm but there was much further to go. Continue reading “Article: Online safety bill ‘will fail to protect millions from cloned websites and ad scams’”

Article: Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash

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Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash

Linda Chiem, 19 April 2021

A fatal crash in Texas involving a Tesla vehicle purportedly in semi-autonomous mode with no driver behind the wheel has sparked dual federal investigations that will invite sharper regulatory scrutiny of potential gaps in self-driving car technology, even as CEO Elon Musk flatly rejects suggestions that Autopilot was a factor.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates auto safety, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates transportation accidents, sent teams Monday to investigate the Saturday crash in the Houston suburb of Spring, which left two people dead. Continue reading “Article: Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash”

Article: Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?

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Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?

Featured Posts, Investments, 02 April 2021

I am still coming to terms with the collapse in shares of Home Capital. It wasn’t supposed to play out this way. The Canadian alternative mortgage lender saw its shares fall from an all-time high of $54.86 in August of 2014 to a low of $5.85 in May of 2017. At the time, I was working as an analyst at one of Canada’s largest asset managers. I spent 2014 and 2015 following only the Canadian banking sector. I saw the events at Home Capital up close.

The company was in the crosshairs of short sellers for years prior to its 2017 crisis. As an alternative lender in Canada’s frothy housing market, many shorts saw parallels between Home Capital and some of the worst-performing American subprime lenders. Steve Eisman, made famous in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short for his success betting against the US subprime bubble, was one of the first to come out publicly as a bear on Home Capital in 2013. And from there the criticisms continued for years. Continue reading “Article: Who (Almost) Killed Home Capital Group?”

Article: NatWest money laundering case linked to second criminal trial, prosecutors say

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NatWest money laundering case linked to second criminal trial, prosecutors say

Iain Withers, 19 March 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Criminal money laundering charges against British state-backed bank NatWest are linked to a separate case against 13 individuals based in cities across the country, prosecutors have told Reuters.

Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), started a criminal action against NatWest on Tuesday, making it the first bank to be charged under a 2007 money laundering law.

The FCA accused NatWest of failing to monitor suspect activity by a client that deposited about 365 million pounds($500 million) in its accounts over five years, of which 264 million was in cash.

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Article: Has Wall Street Stolen $100 Trillion from the American Public? Will Donald Trump Get It Back?

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Has Wall Street Stolen $100 Trillion from the American Public? Will Donald Trump Get It Back?

Tehran Times, May 26, 2020 – International

TEHRAN – Robert David Steele, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and CIA spy as well as an activist for Open Source Everything Engineering (OSEE), contributes regularly to Tehran Times.

Continue reading “Article: Has Wall Street Stolen $100 Trillion from the American Public? Will Donald Trump Get It Back?”

Subject: Stuart Wilson

Subject of Interest

Stuart Wilson Lewis is the Chief Risk Officer of Deutsche Bank and became a member of the  Management Board in 2012. He assumes responsibility for Compliance, Anti-Financial Crime and the Business Selection and Conflicts Office. He joined Deutsche Bank in 1996. Prior to assuming his current role, Lewis was the Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Chief Risk Officer of the Corporate & Investment Bank from 2010 to 2012. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he worked at Credit Suisse and Continental Illinois National Bank in London.Lewis graduated from  the University of Dundee, where he obtained an LLB (Hons), and he holds an LLM from the London School of Economics. He also attended the College of Law, Guildford. 

Biography

Deutsche Bank

Article: Flash Crashes, Algo Manipulation & Demystifying Market Abuse Regulation

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Flash Crashes, Algo Manipulation & Demystifying Market Abuse Regulation

Roger Aitken, 26 May 2016

It’s conjecture as to when the next flash crash might occur. But with the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) coming into force on 3 July 2016, investment firms and operators of trading venues are heading for yet another regulatory change. As if there were not enough regulations and red tape confronting firms from a slew of edicts from Brussels and elsewhere in other jurisdictions.

One could reel off regulatory acronyms such as MiFIR, REMIT to counter market abuse in the energy markets and MAD to name a few. This time though it is with a focus of manipulation of algorithms being labelled as ‘market abuse’.

Driving the latest regulation on top of the welter of others is a need to establish a more uniform and stronger framework in order to preserve market integrity, to avoid potential regulatory arbitrage as well as to ensure accountability in the event of attempted manipulation. Add in providing more legal certainty and – in the view of the legislators – less regulatory complexity for market participants and compliance officers have their hands full. Continue reading “Article: Flash Crashes, Algo Manipulation & Demystifying Market Abuse Regulation”

Book: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

Book

#1 New York Times Bestseller ― With a new Afterword

“Guaranteed to make blood boil.” ―Janet Maslin, New York Times

In Michael Lewis’s game-changing bestseller, a small group of Wall Street iconoclasts realize that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders. They band together―some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries―to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you.

Article: Heist of the century: Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis

Article - Media, Publications

Heist of the century: Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis

Charles Ferguson, 20 May 2012

Bernard L Madoff ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, operating it for 30 years and causing cash losses of $19.5bn. Shortly after the scheme collapsed and Madoff confessed in 2008, evidence began to surface that for years, major banks had suspected he was a fraud. None of them reported their suspicions to the authorities, and several banks decided to make money from him without, of course, risking any of their own funds. Theories about his fraud varied. Some thought he might have access to insider information. But quite a few thought he was running a Ponzi scheme. Goldman Sachs executives paid a visit to Madoff to see if they should recommend him to clients. A partner later recalled: “Madoff refused to let them do any due diligence on the funds and when asked about the firm’s investment strategy they couldn’t understand it. Goldman not only blacklisted Madoff in the asset management division but banned its brokerage from trading with the firm too.” Continue reading “Article: Heist of the century: Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis”

Article: Bringing Down Bear Stearns

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Bringing Down Bear Stearns

Bryan Burrough

Vanity Fair, 30 June 2008

On Monday, March 10, the rumor started: Bear Stearns was having liquidity problems. In fact, the maverick investment bank had around $18 billion in cash reserves. But soon the speculation created its own reality, and the race was on to keep Bear’s crisis from ravaging Wall Street. With the blow-by-blow from insiders, Bryan Burrough follows the players—Bear’s stunned executives, trigger-happy reporters at CNBC, a nervous Fed, a shadowy group of short-sellers—in what some believe was the greatest financial scandal in history.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?