The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations plans to conduct a hearing over what it believes are abusive transactions made by financial institutions. Bloomberg is reporting that Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Barclays PLC (BARC), and hedge fund manager Renaissance Technologies LLC will have representatives testifying at the hearing. The July…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against microcap company Natural Blue Resources Inc. and four persons for purportedly hiding from investors that two of them had previously broken the law. The regulator has suspended trading in Natural Blue stock. Natural Blue’s mission was to acquire, establish, or invest…
Dean Mustaphalli, an ex-Sterne Agee Financial Services Inc. broker, could be barred from the industry over allegations that he ran a $6 million hedge fund on the side. According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., Mustaphalli founded and got commissions from Mustaphalli Capital Partners in 2011 but did not…
Citigroup (C) has reached a $7 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations it misled investors about mortgage-backed securities in the time leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown. The settlement includes a $4 billion penalty to be paid to DOJ, $2.5 billion in consumer relief, and…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing Kings Canyon Joint Unified School District of not giving municipal bond investors the financial data and notices to which they were entitled. The California school district settled the SEC’s findings without denying or admitting to the charges. Kings Canyon has consented to an…
Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is getting ready to vote on rules that are supposed to stop investors from bailing out of money-market mutual funds, which is the reason that corporate lending became imperiled during the 2008 financial meltdown. Under the plan,…
According to a survey issued by Morningstar Inc., financial advisers may be using the wrong benchmark when evaluating and choosing alternative investments. The research firm and Barron’s magazine questioned 301 advisers and 372 institutional investors. Right now, the most popular way that advisers assess their investments’ performance is with a…
The Securities and Exchange Commission is ordering the comptroller and principals of SignalPoint Asset Management to pay $215,000 for breach of fiduciary. The regulator claims that the Missouri-based registered investment adviser breached its fiduciary duty when it did not tell clients about certain conflicts of interest. The SEC says that…
According to state regulators, non-traded real estate investment trusts, structure products, and private placements, are some of the financial instruments that the states and insurance regulators are watching closely. First Deputy Commissioner of the Iowa Insurance Division Jim Mumford and Alabama Securities Commission director Joseph P. Borg recently spoke at…
According to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority chief risk officer Carlo di Florio, variable annuities continue to among the products named the most in customer complaints. He spoke at the Insured Retirement Institute’s Government Legal & Regulatory conference in D.C. on Monday. Di Florio, who is also the head of strategy…