BankingInsuranceSecurities.Com

It has come to our notice that one or more persons are fraudulently delivering e-mail purporting to come from BankingInsuranceSecurities.com. It is impossible for that mail to originate at that domain and you may safely blacklist it at server level. For more information, see below.

The fraud has interesting timing and holders of internet domains should be aware of a possible new threat to reputation. The threat does not, on the face of it, have any immediate cyber-security implications but there may be hidden dangers.

It all began when financial services regulation became trendy. In the good old days (which were in fact the bad old days in so many ways) language was used accurately. But some twit decided that precision in language in some way excluded hoi poloi. We are now some twenty years into a process by which imprecision has become the norm and therefore confusion and expense the inevitable result. One of the terms that first fell to this idiotic process is "firm."

Sydney-based authorised representative Eli Ekman, of Dover Heights, NSW, has been prohibited from providing any financial services in any capacity for five years, under the terms of a court-enforceable undertaking (EU), said Australian financial services regulator ASIC in a statement this week. His offence is unusual.

What're the odds? Statistically, and logically, there are some things that should not happen, especially when a series of conditions must be met. Think how hard it is to get a rollover of selecting the winner of six horse-races in a row, for example. How can it be, then, that there are so many in-debt young people who attended college but don't have their degrees or whatever? The answer lies in a series of mismanagement decisions over a period of years at all levels of government in the USA. And it could easily happen anywhere else, too.

A statement from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says that a meeting of the heads of the leading multilateral development banks (MDBs) meeting at the 2018 Global Infrastructure Forum (GI Forum) today reaffirmed their commitment to work together to deliver inclusive, resilient, and sustainable technology-driven infrastructure. "

There's a lot of blah-blah-buzzword-blah and then comes a sentence that should pique the interest of all in the financial and aid sectors.

In 2011, Moody’s Investors Service Hong Kong Limited which along with many associated companies is generally known only as "Moody's," and which has forgone the sobriquet "ratings agency" in favour of the much more honest "ratings organisation", issued a document entitled "Red Flags for Emerging-Market Companies: A Focus on China." Ignoring, for the sake of simplicity, that the document referred to warning signs and not red flags in the true sense, it contained material that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) decided was not apt. That started a battle which continues.

It's one of the quickest settlements that the USA's Securities and Accounts Commission will ever see. On 27th September, civil proceedings were started. That was Thursday. The proceedings were, it has to be said, no surprise but while the "what" was expected, the "when" was unknown. After all, American prosecutors and regulators enjoy the glare of publicity and trying their cases in the court of public opinion long before they ever get to a court room. But Elon Musk, who is increasingly demonstrating deteriorating judgement in so many ways, is nothing if not decisive. On Saturday, 29th September, the SEC issued a statement: the SEC and Musk had settled and Musk didn't do anywhere near as badly as the SEC had applied for. But there is a sting in the tail.

It's now clear: posting message on social media such as twitter, facebook and instagram is regarded by the USA's Securities and Exchange Commission in the same light as any other statement and the consequences for false or misleading information are the same as any other means of disseminating such information. Elon Musk, hardly a shrinking violet when it comes to grabbing headlines for his various ventures, is the defendant in a civil action brought by the SEC: what happens here will define both how corporations use social media and whether others who have posted material they should not have done will be brought to book.

Media Release : issued 24/09/2018 20:59

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today published an Enforcement monograph to provide greater clarity and transparency into how MAS deters, detects, investigates and takes action against breaches of the rules and regulations it administers. The monograph outlines how MAS’ Enforcement Department works together with the other financial sector oversight functions in MAS to uphold Singapore’s reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre.

ASIC has taken action to stop several proposed initial coin offerings or token-generation events (together, "ICO"s), targeting retail investors.

It takes something of a cheek to solicit investment in a fraudulent scheme and to publish a website with comments falsely attributed to the Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore who also happens to be the country's deputy prime minister. But as MAS has warned, that's exactly what someone is doing...

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) yesterday issued for consultation proposed requirements for financial institutions (FIs) in Singapore to implement essential cyber security measures to protect their IT systems. These requirements will help FIs strengthen their cyber resilience and guard against cyber attacks, says MAS.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that in an agreed settlement before the Federal Court, Australian financial services group Westpac will pay a civil penalty of AUD35 million after admitting breaches of Australia's responsible lending rules. The door-of-the-court settlement avoids a lengthy trial that should have started yesterday.

*** Update: see Westpac's new best friend? Australian Federal Court rejects settlement with regulator ***

Australia's ASIC has undertaken an extensive review of so-called "reverse mortgages" which are actual mortgages with potentially catastrophic long-tail results, which may be one of the things that borrowers did not understand. The findings of the review are startling.