On January 28, 2026, the Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued a joint staff statement on tokenized securities (the “Statement”). The staff defines tokenized securities as traditional securities issued or represented as crypto assets on a blockchain and reiterated that existing U.S. federal securities laws apply regardless of whether a security is recorded traditional

Saxo Bank faces a DKK 313,000,000 (49.7 million) administrative fine from Denmark’s financial watchdog after supervisors flagged anti-money laundering weaknesses in its institutional operations. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority issued the fine after finding that Saxo Bank breached its regulations between 2021 and 2023. “The administrative fine is based on the company's failure to comply with the requirements for obtaining information regarding the purpose and intend

The Tribunal agreed with the FCA that significant fines should be imposed, deciding that fines of £4m, £352,000 and £14,200 were appropriate for Rangecourt SA, Mr Rowland and Mr Bolelyy respectively. The Tribunal also upheld the FCA’s decision to ban Mr Rowland and Mr Bolelyy from working in financial services. Banque Havilland created a plan (initially titled ‘Setting fire to the neighbour’s house fund’) to harm the Qatari Riyal through manipulative trading strategies. The a

AUSTRAC has released its anti-money laundering program starter kits (kits), designed specifically to help small businesses in newly regulated sectors to meet their compliance obligations and manage ML/TF risks, while also reducing the time and cost of compliance.  From 1 July, businesses providing certain  designated services  commonly provided by lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, conveyancers and jewellers will have obligations under the AML/CTF Act.  The kits set ou

AUSTRAC has ordered the appointment of an external auditor to assess whether payment platform, Airwallex Designated Business Group (Airwallex DBG), is meeting its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations, following concerns about potential non-compliance. AUSTRAC Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Thomas, said external audits are a critical regulatory tool to assess serious compliance concerns and to protect the financial system from criminal

The FCA's decision to ban Darren Antony Reynolds from working in financial services and fine him £2,037,892 has been upheld by the Upper Tribunal. The FCA's decision to ban Darren Antony Reynolds from working in financial services and fine him £2,037,892 has been upheld by the Upper Tribunal.  Mr Reynolds was dishonest when he gave pension transfer advice and investment recommendations to his customers, causing them significant harm. Mr Reynolds showed a clear disregard for h

The FCA has fined Russel Gerrity £309,843 for using inside information to net himself £128,765. As a consultant, Mr Gerrity had access to information about whether oil and gas had been discovered during the drilling of wells. Between October 2018 and January 2022, he took advantage of this and used inside information to buy shares in Chariot Oil & Gas Limited and Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Plc ahead of announcements that increased their price.   On another occasion, he used i

Spain-based financial institution CaixaBank has received a EUR 30 million fine from the Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Authority (Sepblac) over AML failings. Representing one of the most significant AML penalties imposed in Spain, the fine comes as a result of a real estate deal from nearly a decade ago, which involved the sale of a Madrid skyscraper. Under resolution BOE-A-2025-26201, a fine of EUR 17.6 million was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 11 Dece