FiSolve Weekly News Digest: April 17, 2026

Here is what we are reading in the news this week...

SEC Seeks Public Comment on Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and Related Data Sources

The Securities and Exchange Commission a concept release soliciting public comment in support of a comprehensive review of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and other audit trails and related data sources currently used in the regulation of U.S. securities markets. The concept release seeks comment on topics including, but not limited to, CAT funding and cost management, the regulatory purpose of the CAT, the structure and governance of the CAT, the design and scope of the CAT, and the cybersecurity and data privacy of the CAT and other audit trails and related data sources, as well as comments regarding the appropriate balance between privacy and confidentiality considerations, civil liberties protections, and regulatory need. Read more here.

FINRA Censures Member Firm for Supervisory and Compliance Deficiencies, AML Program Failures

FINRA found that a member firm failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures reasonably designed to ensure compliance with FINRA rules, including FINRA Rule 3110, and also failed to maintain an anti money laundering (AML) program reasonably designed to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and FINRA Rule 3310. FINRA determined that the firm did not adequately identify and verify the beneficial owners of certain legal entity customers and failed for several years to conduct required independent AML testing, allowing regulatory deficiencies to go undetected. Without admitting or denying FINRA’s findings, the firm consented to a censure, agreed to pay a $45,000 monetary fine, and undertook to remediate its supervisory and AML compliance deficiencies. Read more here.

Report: Nearly Half of Job Seekers “Spray and Pray”

Monster’s latest Job Application Behavior Report finds modern job seekers are increasingly applying to many roles quickly rather than targeting a small number of well matched opportunities, with 48% saying they regularly “spray and pray” their applications. The report explains that this behavior is driven less by impatience and more by structural factors in hiring, including limited employer feedback, widespread use of applicant tracking systems, and the popularity of Easy Apply tools, which together encourage volume over precision. Notably, 76% of job seekers say they would apply more strategically if employers provided consistent feedback, suggesting that clearer communication and transparency could significantly reduce application overload while improving the quality of candidate–employer matches. Read more here.

DOL Clarifies Enforcement Focus for

Employee Benefits Plans

Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2026 01, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), outlines updated guiding principles and enforcement priorities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to ensure fair, focused, and transparent oversight of employee benefit plans. The Bulletin emphasizes concentrating enforcement resources on the most egregious misconduct and cases causing significant harm to plan participants, avoiding “regulation by enforcement” in favor of clear statutory and regulatory grounding, requiring heightened senior level review for significant enforcement actions, and committing to timely and responsive investigations. Overall, the guidance signals EBSA’s intent to protect workers’ benefits while providing greater predictability and procedural fairness for employers and plan fiduciaries. Read more here.

FDIC Announces International Coordination on Cross Border Bank Resolution Planning

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced that the heads of resolution and regulatory authorities, central banks, and finance ministries of the United States, the European Banking Union, and the United Kingdom are among leaders that will participate in a Trilateral Principal Level Exercise on Saturday, April 18, 2026. The meeting is the latest in a series of regular exercises and exchanges among the principals of these key financial sector authorities. The FDIC stated these exercises enhance understanding of each jurisdiction’s resolution regime for global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), strengthen coordination on cross-border resolution, and promote confidence in and commitment to the orderly resolution of G-SIBs. Read more here.

SEC Approves Exemptive Order and Proposed Rule Change to Permit Customer Cross-Margining in

the U.S. Treasury Market

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a conditional exemptive order that permits customer cross-margining of cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered clearing agency and futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization. The order provides for an exemption from the broker-dealer customer protection rule for a broker-dealer that is dually-registered as a futures commission merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and is a joint clearing member of the clearing agency and derivatives clearing organization, to permit the broker-dealer to make cross-margining available to certain customers in a futures account provided the conditions of the order are met. In addition, the SEC approved a proposed rule change filed by the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) pursuant to which it would enter into a proposed Third Amended and Restated Cross-Margining Agreement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and incorporate that agreement into the FICC Government Securities Division rules, along with related rule changes. Read more here and here.

Mixed Results on VC Valuations

A report from PitchBook finds Q1 2026 set new highs for both venture dealmaking and exits. However, PitchBook notes a deeper dive into the data reveals a more complicated story. The quarter’s $267.2 billion in deal value exceeded every full-year total except for those of 2021 and 2025, and exit value hit $347.3 billion, the highest quarter on record. Yet without the five largest deals and exits, those figures fall by 73.2% and 86.6%, respectively. The report also notes the potential for a historic windfall looms large. IPOs from SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic could generate nearly $2.5 trillion in exit value, more than all VC-backed IPOs in this century combined. But that potential sits alongside a sobering reality: The median VC IRR for North American fund vintages since 2019 remains in the single digits, and the median distribution to paid-in multiple for the past decade’s vintages is still below 1x. Read more here.

💡FiSolve's Negotiation Tip of the Week💡

Choosing Between Bad Options

When being forced to choose between imperfect outcomes, the necessary discipline is not to find the “right” option but to rigorously determine the least value-destructive one. Start by slowing the discussion and explicitly separating irreversible risks (regulatory exposure, reputational damage, capital impairment) from reversible or containable costs, then anchor your decision on protecting the firm’s long-term franchise rather than short-term optics. Reframe the choice by asking which option preserves the most strategic flexibility after the agreement. This may include things like liquidity, optionality, relationships, or timing often matter more than headline economics. Finally, narrate the decision clearly to stakeholders as a controlled trade-off made under constraints, not as a binary loss, which reinforces credibility and maintains leverage for future negotiations even when the immediate outcome is unfavorable.

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