Three news to start your week: September 25
Asset manager DWS to pay $25mn to settle greenwashing charges
(Financial Times)
DWS has agreed to pay $25 million to resolve two different enforcement actions launched by the US securities regulator resulting from investigations into a greenwashing controversy that has plagued the asset management for over two years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against the German asset management, controlled mainly by Deutsche Bank, for allegedly violating anti-money laundering laws and making false statements regarding its investments in environmental, social, and governance issues.
Gurbir Grewal, the director of the regulator's enforcement division, said in a statement that "the SEC's order finds that DWS advised mutual funds with billions of dollars in assets yet failed to ensure that the funds had an [anti-money laundering] AML program tailored to their specific risks, as required by law."
Goldman, Citadel Securities pay SEC millions over trade labeling
(Bloomberg)
On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission struck multimillion-dollar settlements with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citadel Securities about how they had identified millions of trades.
In exchange for providing the SEC with incomplete or erroneous trading data for at least 163 million transactions over ten years, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay a $6 million fine. In the meantime, the SEC announced that Ken Griffin's market-making company will pay $7 million for misclassifying short sales as longs and vice versa due to a coding error at Citadel Securities.
Unrelated to these proceedings, over a dozen Wall Street corporations have paid over $2.5 billion in fines for conducting business using personal phones and messaging apps like WhatsApp. The penalties were imposed due to recordkeeping regulations.
To resolve the SEC accusations, Merrill consented to pay $6 million.
Australia fines lender NAB $1.4 million for wrongfully charging fees
(Reuters)
National Australia Bank (NAB), the nation's second-largest lender, was penalized A$2.1 million ($1.4 million) by the Australian Federal Court for deceitfully charging clients recurring payment costs.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) noted that National Australia Bank charged its clients recurring payment fees for money transfers between January 2017 and July 2018, even though it knew it was not entitled to do so contractually.
According to the regulator, the bank falsely collected payment fees totaling A$139,845 from 2,888 personal banking customers and 513 corporate accounts on 74,593 separate instances.
