* As prosecutors expected, Russian hacker Andrei Tyurin pleaded guilty Sept. 23 in a Manhattan district court to charges that he stole data on more than 80 million JPMorgan Chase customers and about a dozen other financial institutions including Fidelity Investments, E*TRADE Financial and Dow Jones & Co., Bloomberg News reports. Tyurin, who admitted that he executed what is considered to be the biggest known cyberattack against a U.S. bank, was apprehended last year in the Republic of Georgia and extradited to the U.S.
* Meanwhile, a former investment banker at JPMorgan and Perella Weinberg Partners, Sean Stewart, was again convicted of insider trading, Bloomberg News reports. Stewart was sentenced to serve three years in prison in 2017, but his conviction was later vacated by a federal appeals court judge. Prosecutors had alleged Sean Stewart disclosed information related to five healthcare deals to his father, Robert Stewart, and that the latter, along with two conspirators, profited off the information from 2011 to 2014. Jurors at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in the latest decision, however, found Sean Stewart guilty based on phone records and emails that supported prosecutors' claims.
* The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission penalized PricewaterhouseCoopers for allegedly violating the regulator's auditor independence rules by performing prohibited non-audit services during an audit engagement. Both PwC and a partner of the audit firm, Brandon Sprankle, agreed to settle the charges. PwC will pay more than $7.9 million in monetary relief, which includes disgorgement of about $3.8 million, plus prejudgment interest of $613,842 and a civil money penalty of $3.5 million, while Sprankle will pay a civil money penalty of $25,000.
* The Federal Reserve may have to cut interest rates again due to a slowdown in global growth, ongoing trade tensions and other data that signify the Fed policy "may be too restrictive," St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told an audience in Effingham, Ill., on Sept. 23. Bullard voted against the Fed's Sept. 18 rate cut in favor of more aggressive easing.
* The Federal Reserve is hoping to get out in front of threats to the economy with a "mid-cycle adjustment" in monetary policy. But cuts in interest rates from relatively low starting levels are creating anxiety about how much room the central bank has to maneuver, and the negative-rate malaise in economies abroad — one of the factors driving policymakers to act — can appear like a prophecy for the U.S.
* The U.S. Treasury intends to disclose more data about U.S. government bond market trading in a bid to bring transparency to the $16 trillion market, the Financial Times reports. Through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Treasury will put out information on U.S. government bond trading volumes weekly.
* Goldman Sachs is looking to add 100 more to its 250 frontline staff in the next three years, including more than 30 wealth advisers, to cater to wealthy clients in Switzerland, Germany and the U.K., Bloomberg News reports. At the same time, the company is poised to launch stocks and shares Isa in a bid to join the U.K. retail investment market, according to the Financial Times.
* All of the SEC's commissioners will be testifying together on Capitol Hill for the first time since 2007 at a hearing set at 10 a.m. today by the House Financial Services Committee.
* The House Financial Services Committee will also hold another hearing at 2 p.m. today, titled "Examining the Racial and Gender Wealth Gap in America."
* BRP Group, a Tampa, Fla.-based independent insurance distribution firm that does business through insurance broker Baldwin Risk Partners, has filed for an IPO of its common shares. The IPO's proposed maximum aggregate price is $100 million, estimated solely to calculate the registration fee.
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