A mortgage loan servicer agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to settle charges, brought by the New York State Department of Financial Services ("NYDFS") for failure to register, secure and maintain certain vacant and abandoned properties. According to the NYDFS Consent Order, SN Servicing Corporation also agreed to provide confirmation to NYDFS within 30 days that all properties subject to New York's Vacant and Abandoned Property Law have been (i) sufficiently registered with the NYDFS registry of vacant and abandoned properties and (ii) maintained properly, and that all quarterly filings for each

SIFMA recommended a full market close on January 21, 2019, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The closure would affect trading of U.S. dollar-denominated fixed income securities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

The UK Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed withdrawal agreement for Britain's departure from the EU. The proposed agreement was defeated by 230 votes. Members of Parliament voted 432 to 202 against the deal. The European Commission and UK negotiators had issued a draft of the terms of the UK's exit from the EU on November 25, 2018. In addition, the UK and the EU had prepared a political declaration on a "future framework" for the relationship between the UK and the EU.

The SEC charged nine defendants for (i) hacking into the SEC's online Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval ("EDGAR") system to acquire material nonpublic documents and (ii) trading on that information. Those charged included a Ukrainian hacker, six individual traders in California, Ukraine and Russia, and two entities. According to the SEC Complaint, the Ukrainian hacker and several of the traders were previously involved in a similar scheme to hack into newswire services and profit by illegally trading on material nonpublic information contained in the pre-releases. The SEC

A brokerage firm agreed to settle FINRA charges for (i) failing to retain records of business-related emails, and (ii) failing to establish and maintain a sufficient supervisory system. According to the Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, Advisory Group Equity Services Ltd. ("AGES") neglected to retain the business-related emails of roughly 70 newly hired representatives. FINRA also said that many of those representatives improperly continued to use their prior firm email addresses after becoming employees at AGES. To settle the charges, AGES agreed to a censure, and to pay a fine of $20