Our free roundup also covers AcadiaSoft’s new partner, SEC’s latest whistleblower, and a new customer for SS&C’s Sylvan.
NYDFS Approves Bakkt Marketplace
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved the application of Bakkt Marketplace, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bakkt Holdings, LLC, for virtual currency and money transmitter licenses, Financial Services Superintendent Linda A. Lacewell reports.
The licenses will allow Bakkt Marketplace, a digital currency trading platform, to offer its New York customers the ability to buy and sell virtual currency, according to a NYDFS statement that also notes Bakkt will be “subject to DFS’s supervision of its licensed activities.”
Since 2015, DFS has granted 29 virtual currency licenses or trust charters, including the Bakkt virtual currency license, according to the DFS statement.
“With new technology advancing every day, DFS is proud to be at the forefront of financial innovation through our continuous efforts to set the conditions for virtual currency companies to germinate and grow,” Superintendent Lacewell says in the statement. “This approval provides additional virtual currency options to New Yorkers as the state continues to rebuild and recover.”
Additional information regarding DFS’s regulation of New York’s virtual currency marketplace can be found here: http://on.ny.gov/3eTssl7
Privately held Bakkt, founded in 2018, is a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
AcadiaSoft Partners with Capitolis
AcadiaSoft, a back-office collateral management services provider for uncleared derivatives, is working with Capitolis, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor whose system helps financial services firms find liquidity via the balance sheets of other firms.
“The partnership combines AcadiaSoft’s risk analytics and repository of industrywide margin data with Capitolis’ proprietary technology platform, which will enable greater capital optimization for financial institutions,” the vendors say in a statement. “The solution will allow financial institutions to eliminate large and unnecessary positions and find the most suitable party to hold the remaining positions.” The combined offering “has the potential to materially impact returns on capital, market liquidity and access to markets.”
“Capitolis is reimagining how the capital markets operate. We have been working with their innovative team for a while and are excited to collaborate with a company that shares our vision for enhancing market efficiency and capital consumption for the market in a rapidly changing operating environment,” says Chris Walsh, CEO of AcadiaSoft, in a statement.
SEC Awards $1.5 Million to Whistleblower
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that it has awarded approximately $1.5 million to an unnamed whistleblower “whose information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action.”
The whistleblower in question “alerted the SEC to previously unknown conduct and thereafter provided multiple submissions, identified potential witnesses, and met with staff on several occasions,” says Jane Norberg, chief of the SEC’s whistleblower office, in a statement. “As the numerous recent awards make clear, whistleblowers like the one awarded today play an integral part in the success of the SEC’s enforcement program.”
The SEC has awarded approximately $759 million to 143 individuals since issuing its first award in 2012, according to an SEC statement.
The SEC notes that “payments are made out of an investor protection fund established by Congress that is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the SEC by securities law violators. No money has been taken or withheld from harmed investors to pay whistleblower awards.”
Whistleblowers are “eligible for an award when they voluntarily provide the SEC with original, timely, and credible information that leads to a successful enforcement action. Whistleblower awards can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected when the monetary sanctions exceed $1 million,” according to the SEC.
The SEC “protects the confidentiality of whistleblowers and does not disclose any information that could reveal a whistleblower’s identity,” the statement points out.
For more information about the whistleblower program and how to report, go to: www.sec.gov/whistleblower
South African Firm to Use SS&C’s Sylvan
The Professional Provident Society (PPS), a firm in South Africa, will employ a performance measurement and attribution platform from SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc., according to an SS&C statement.
The platform, called Sylvan, will support $2.74 billion in assets under management across PPS Investments’ business, according to the statement.
PPS Investments, founded in 2007, is the investment managing entity within the 80-year-old PPS Group, South Africa’s largest multidisciplinary society of graduate professionals with more than 150,000 members, per the statement.
In turn, the PPS Group is a “mutual financial services company and shares 100 percent of its profits with its members,” according to the SS&C statement.
SS&C, founded in 1986, characterizes itself as a global provider of services and software for the financial services and healthcare industries.
SS&C is headquartered in Windsor, Conn., and tallies approximately 18,000 financial services and healthcare organizations as clients.