Here are the top reads on deals and financial services in the past 24 hours,
Venture capital: Vancouver e-commerce technology provider Elastic Path Software Inc. is raising $43-million from American and Canadian investors, with plans to expand its footprint in the growing online retail industry. Story (Josh O’Kane, for subscribers)
Regulatory criticism: Investment regulators are being widely criticized for being too lenient after announcing a $1.1-million settlement with Royal Mutual Funds Inc. for the company offering higher commissions to advisers to sell its own proprietary funds. Ken Kivenko, a prominent investor-rights advocate who assists victims of financial crimes, estimates that as a result of the extra incentive payouts, RBC could have made approximately $122.5- million in revenue for its subsidiary RMFI. He describes the settlement as one of the worst cases he has seen in the industry. “What rational financial institution would not pay a $1.1-million fine if the illegal act that generated more than $122-million in revenue?” Mr. Kivenko says. Story (Clare O’Hara)
Passes away: John Mountain, a director at the Ontario Securities Commission, passed away on Monday morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 62. Story (Clare ‘O’Hara, for subscribers)
MORE FINANCIAL SERVICES NEWS
Fined: Bank of America Corp. subsidiary Merrill Lynch will pay a US$42-million penalty for lying to customers about how it handled their orders, the top U.S. securities regulator said on Tuesday. Story
Diversity: As a biomedical engineering student at Duke University, Priya Karani thought she did not have the right skills to break into the heavily male-dominated field of Wall Street trading. “I was never interested in a career in trading at a bank because I didn’t know it was an option,” Karani said. A decade later, Karani is a director at Barclays PLC in New York where she trades healthcare derivatives and helps the bank’s effort to attract more women to trading by talking to female college students about her job. Story
MORE DEALS NEWS
Energy sector: Activist investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday won a battle for control of SandRidge Energy , winning at least four of seven seats on the board of the U.S. shale producer that he wants to sell. Story
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