Compliance Into The Weeds - Year End Review, Part 1
Earlier this year, we saw the rise of shareholder activism in the Reddit v. Goliath story on Wall Street. Let’s take a look back at this story. What is GameStop and why was everyone so fixated on it? ...more
Gamification tactics and investment advice from social media influencers and chat rooms are just a couple of the disruptive technologies and behaviors that are capturing the attention of regulators in 2021 and forcing them to...more
The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a statement on the requirements under the EU Market Abuse Regulation for firms and individuals that make investment recommendations on social media. ESMA is concerned...more
Barclay’s CEO Jes Staley is stepping down immediately after a two-year investigation by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Conduct Authority into Staley’s “relationship with the disgraced financier...more
While the Delta variant threatens Disney’s big theme park reopenings (and its recent return to profit in that sector after a year in the red), Big Mouse’s streaming service continues to deliver. Disney+ wrapped its fiscal Q3...more
SEC Chair Gary Gensler testified yesterday before the House Committee on Financial Services about the SEC’s efforts to assess and address the market volatility that occurred in GameStop and other “meme stocks” resulting in...more
Yesterday, for the first time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler appeared before Congress to provide testimony regarding the market disruptions and volatility witnessed in January 2021 relating...more
The latest and greatest from Fed Chair Powell as the Fed’s March Open Markets Committee meeting wrapped yesterday, including a markets-pleasing assurance that better-than-expected economic growth wasn’t enough to push the...more
In an SEC filing Friday, February 26, Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities disclosed they are negotiating with FINRA, the SEC, and state regulators, attempting to settle investigations into options-trading and outages...more
Walmart’s recent move to hire away a “pair of senior Goldman Sachs bankers” to head up the retailer’s new fintech startup (a collaboration with Ribbit Capital) has tongues wagging about the company’s ambitions to shove its...more
UK CCPs: HM Treasury consults on expanded resolution regime - HM Treasury is consulting on an expanded resolution regime for central counterparties (CCPs). HM Treasury intends to revise and expand the UK CCP resolution...more
The Deposit Trust & Clearing Corp. (“DTCC”) released a February 24 roadmap for shortening the settlement cycle for US equities by half over the next two years. The proposal anticipates DTCC’s completion of its “Project ION”...more
Boeing needs another aircraft problem like a hole in the head, but that’s just what it got after a right-engine explosion on one of its 777-200 models that had just left Denver en route to Hawaii. ...more
In a much-anticipated [well, for some of us central bank nerds, at least] to the Economic Club of NY, Fed Chair Powell on Wednesday acknowledged that pent-up consumer demand unlocked by a big government stimulus package could...more
During the height of the GameStop (NYSE: GME) mania, Slate author Jordan Weissman explained that “[A]t a moment that the markets are being overrun, for better or worse, by posters who’ve basically dedicated themselves to...more
On Thursday, January 28, trading-app broker-dealer Robinhood – a self-styled disrupter democratizing trading – suspended its users’ ability to buy Gamestop stock or options (along with other stocks). After playing a...more
With Vice President Harris acting as the tiebreaker (and following a 15-hour amendment vote-a-rama), the Senate voted on Thursday to move forward with the White House’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief measure....more
I think the GameStop phenomenon portends a seismic shift in many areas. It may well be a turning point in markets and investments. Where it will be going, I do not think anyone knows right now but everyone needs to be...more
On January 12, GameStop Corp. (ticker symbol: GME) closed at a price of $19.95/share on a volume of approximately 7 million trades. Only 15 days later, GME closed at a price of $347.51 on a volume of 93.45 million trades....more
Consulting standard-bearer McKinsey & Co. will pay $573 million to resolve state investigations and allegations related to its role “in helping ‘turbocharge’ opioid sales, a rare instance of it being held publicly accountable...more
Seismic news out of Seattle yesterday, with Amazon founder and CEO informing employees that he’s stepping out of the top spot at the e-commerce giant this summer after a nearly 30-year run and transitioning “into the role of...more
New CBO projections suggest that even without additional Congressional aid, the “American economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by the middle of this year.” While encouraging, the report offers cold comfort for the...more
Moved by Covid’s bite out of the energy industry, oil behemoths ExxonMobil and Chevron Corp. have held talks about joining forces, “testing the water for what could be one of the largest corporate mergers ever.” ...more