Robinhood、SECと「手数料無料取引」問題で6500万ドルの和解に達する

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on December 17^日, that it has settled charges laid against popular trading app, Robinhood.

$65 million 和解

The aforementioned settlement is stated to be for $65 million USD.  As is commonplace with these type of settlements, it means that Robinhood will not need to admit any wrong-doing – it will however see restrictions placed upon it moving forward.

“…Robinhoodは1933年証券法の詐欺防止規定および1934年証券取引法の記録保持規定に違反しないよう求める停止命令に同意し、非難され、$65 million の民事罰金を支払うことが求められました。Robinhoodはまた、顧客コミュニケーション、注文フローの支払い、顧客注文の最適執行に関する方針と手順をレビューする独立コンサルタントを雇用し、これらの方針と手順を効果的に遵守していることを保証することにも同意しました。”

手数料無料っぽい？

$65 Million is nothing to scoff at – it is a large fine for a company of any size.  The size of this fine is primarily due to two reasons – the popularity of the exchange (high number of transactions), and the duration of the infractions (2015-2018).

When first making big strides in popularity, Robinhood made a name for itself by touting its platforms ‘commission-free trading’.  Unfortunately, this claim was a little too good to be true, and the SEC has called out Robinhood on it.  The SEC found that Robinhood misled its customer base by hiding its true revenue streams with the intent of making investors believe they were getting a better deal than they really were.

“…主に異常に高い注文フローの支払い率が原因で、Robinhoodの顧客注文は他のブローカーの価格よりも劣る価格で執行されていました。”

 The SEC continues,

“SECは続けて、Robinhoodは2018年10月から2019年6月までのウェブサイトFAQで、執行品質が競合他社と同等または上回っていると虚偽の主張をしました…Robinhoodは手数料がかからないことによる節約分を考慮した上でも、顧客に対して合計$34.1 million の損失をもたらす劣悪な取引価格を提供していました。”

ユニコーン

At the end of the day, while $65million is a sizable amount, Robinhood is no longer a small start-up.  The company notably became one of FinTech’s first to attain ‘Unicorn’ status – indicated when privately held company which has attained a valuation greater than $1 billion.

It has managed to do this by introducing a new generation investing, opening opportunities which were previously inaccessible.  This has occurred much to the chagrin of traditional investors, as many believe that markets should only be accessible to ‘educated’ individuals.

Interest in such FinTech platforms continues to grow, as made evident by other platforms joining Robinhood as industry ‘Unicorns’.  We 最近、WealthSimpleを取り上げました, as it appeals to much of the same investor base.  While its approach to investing varies, the idea of catering to younger investors with accessible investing through technology remains the same.

Robinhood

Founded in 2013, Robinhood is a FinTech company which is headquartered in California.  Robinhood provides its clientele with access to a variety of investment mediums such as ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and more.

CEO, Baiju Bhatt, currently oversees company operations.