Morgan Stanley Settles E-Mail Dispute for $15 Million, and more

Morgan Stanley Agrees to Pay $15 Million Settlement to SEC

Morgan Stanley has agreed in principle to pay the SEC $15 million in civic penalties. The payment is intended to settle the regulator's investigation into a potential violation of e-mail retention rules.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman declined to comment on the payment.

The settlement was disclosed in a form filed with the SEC on Monday. If the SEC accepts the payment, it will be the largest fee ever paid for failure to comply with regulations regarding e-mail retention. The SEC has yet to decide whether they will accept Morgan Stanley's offer, according to a release.

The firm also is working to resolve similar violations with the NASD.

CIBC World Markets Goes With GoldenSource

CIBC World Markets has chosen the GoldenSource Customers and Counterparties solution from GoldenSource Corp. for its institutional business. CIBC World Markets will use the GoldenSource solution as the central data maintenance and storage application to support the firm's "know your client" and anti-money laundering compliance efforts.

GoldenSource will implement the business process CIBC World Markets has defined for managing how new accounts are created; corporate background and due diligence checks are researched; and how supporting legal agreements are captured and stored. CIBC World Markets will now benefit from real-time access to PDF versions of legal agreements from within the GoldenSource Customers and Counterparties solution, according to a release.

GoldenSource Customers and Counterparties solution will support the bank's proprietary risk scheme that assigns a risk rating to all CIBC World Markets' clients and their associated accounts. CIBC World Markets' proprietary risk algorithm will also be utilized to manage account documentation renewal, according to a release.

"The year ahead will prove to be a challenging time for financial institutions as regulation and data management become top priorities on most agendas," Mike Meriton, President and CEO, GoldenSource, commented in a release. "Banks will need to seriously consider the inclusion of an EDM strategy as a vital component of their firmwide business plans in 2006 and beyond,"

Wells Fargo to Use Reveleus for Basel II Compliance

The North American division of Wells Fargo has selected Reveleus, a subsidiary of i-flex, to build its credit capital calculation application for Basel II compliance. The credit solution will provide Wells Fargo with a set of rules, computations, business definitions and underlying data structures to support the bank's computations according to the advanced internal ratings-based approach of the Basel II Accord.

The Reveleus product is designed to simplify the regulations imposed by Basel II, and facilitate a painless transition for Wells Fargo, according to the release.

"The Reveleus Basel II solution is architected to simplify the underlying complexities that the Basel II Accord mandates while enabling Wells Fargo to leverage its existing processes and structures," said Reveleus CEO S. Ramakrishnan, in a release. "We are committed to a strategic partnership with Wells Fargo that enables the bank to accurately measure and manage its capital requirements in a timely and consistent manner."

Wells Fargo, which is also a customer of Oracle, made the decision after i-flex enlisted Oracle as a reseller of the Reveleus Basel II solution in December of 2005, according to the release.

Passfaces Releases New Version of Authentication Solution

Passfaces Corp., a multifactor authentication solution provider, has released Passfaces Financial v3.0. Passfaces Financial bundles software, support services and consumer promotion into a package that gives banks, credit unions and other financial service providers the utilities needed to deploy strong authentication for consumer access to online financial services, while supporting the business risk management objectives specified by the FFIEC, according to a release.

Passfaces 3.0 adds a JavaScript client interface that extends the use of Passfaces to all Web browsers without requiring any user download or software installation. This enables easy deployment to all users via desktops, laptops, kiosks and smartphones. Enhanced security features eliminate keystroke logging as well as providing protection against phishing attacks. The software bundle also includes training, marketing and promotional programs to ease rollout and integration with existing authentication architectures.

The company believes that the low cost of deployment and ease of integration into the user experience gives the Passfaces technology an edge in the multifactor authentication market.

"Most banks and credit unions recognize that providing strong authentication is an essential first step in meeting FFIEC requirements and maintaining the trust of their online customers," said Paul Barrett, CEO of Passfaces, in a release. "However, the cost and complexity of solutions developed for the enterprise environment, such as hardware tokens, are prohibitive for large-scale consumer deployments."

Passfaces works with existing security systems to supplement or replace the use of passwords for system access, using a set of faces as a secret authentication code. Because Passfaces validates the actual user, it provides a highly reliable strong authentication solution for all online transactions, according to the release.