Virtu Americas (f/k/a Knight Execution & Clearing Services, KCG Americas) – Investor Alert – UPDATED

Virtu Americas (f/k/a Knight Execution & Clearing Services, KCG Americas) (CRD# 149823) (SEC# 8-68193)

As of April 4, 2020, Virtu Americas’s (f/k/a Knight Execution & Clearing Services, KCG Americas) FINRA BrokerCheck Report contains the following:

37 Regulatory Event Disclosures

UPDATE 6/18/2020: According to FINRA’s April 2020 Disciplinary Actions: Virtu Americas LLC fka KCG Americas LLC (CRD® #149823, New York, New York) February 4, 2020 – A Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) was issued in which the firm was censured and fined $250,000. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it implemented policies and procedures that failed to reasonably avoid displaying, or engaging in a pattern or practice of displaying, locking or crossing quotations in over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities. The findings stated that the firm did not take into consideration certain technological limitations in its different systems involved in both the sending of OTC link messages and the entering, processing and displaying of orders. Those technological limitations that included a variety of system coding and hardware issues and a reliance on manual processes to implement these policies and procedures caused delays in sending OTC link messages and, in certain instances, caused OTC link messages not to be sent at all. The findings also stated that the firm failed to immediately execute, route or display customer limit orders in OTC equity securities. One of the firm’s trading systems was programmed to automatically display orders received from the firm’s broker-dealer customers. However, orders that would lock or cross the market would not automatically display but would instead drop into a trader’s queue pending manual action. In addition, certain orders that would not lock or cross the market were also excluded from automation based upon risk criteria specified by the firm. The findings also included that the firm reported last sale reports of transactions in National Market System (NMS) equity securities to the FINRA/NASDAQ Trade Reporting Facility (FNTRF) with an incorrect contra capacity code. A coding error in the firm’s systems caused principal account type indicator codes, correctly entered by a single firm customer, to result in an incorrect agency capacity code to the FNTRF. The firm took corrective action on this issue. FINRA® found that the firm failed to timely report and accurately report the correct time of execution in transactions in Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE®) eligible securities. The firm took corrective action with respect to this issue. FINRA also found that the firm failed to supervise transactions in TRACE-eligible securities to achieve compliance with its reporting obligations under FINRA Rule 6730. Until FINRA inquired about its TRACE reporting, the firm failed to perform any supervisory review for its compliance with TRACE reporting requirements including the timeliness and accuracy of the reporting. (FINRA Case #2015045441001)

UPDATE 4/11/2020: According to FINRA’s March 2020 Disciplinary Actions: “Virtu Americas LLC fka KCG Americas LLC and Knight Execution & Clearing Services (CRD #149823, New York, New York) January 6, 2020 – An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $125,000, and required to revise its written methodology with respect to the areas described in the AWC. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it did not maintain a reasonable written methodology governing the execution and priority of all pending orders that it received for handling and execution. The findings stated that the firm did not have a written execution methodology for over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities that were handled manually and executed outside of the firm’s automated system or for certain categories of National Market System (NMS) securities that were executed manually. Given the firm’s size in the OTC market in terms of trade and share volume, its failure to have a reasonable written methodology document governing order priority for manually executed orders created substantial risk that the firm would not handle manual orders consistently. (FINRA Case #2013037127501)”

Main Office Location

ONE LIBERTY PLAZA
165 BROADWAY
NEW YORK, NY 10006
UNITED STATES

Mailing Address

ONE LIBERTY PLAZA
165 BROADWAY
NEW YORK, NY 10006
UNITED STATES

Business Telephone Number

646-682-6000

Direct Owners and Executive Officers

VIRTU STRATEGIC HOLDINGS LLC., OWNER
ITSKOVICH, ALEX PETER (CRD#:2901437), FINOP
LEVINE, MATTHEW STEVEN (CRD#:5384169), CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER
MESSINGER, CRAIG CHARLES (CRD#:731877), CEO
RUPPRECHT, NICHOLAS ANDREW (CRD#:5790389), PRINCIPAL OPERATIONS OFFICER