Dhruv Goyal, CFA

The Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a bitcoin exchange-traded fund from Wilshire Phoenix, saying the firm had failed to prove manipulation is avoidable in the bitcoin market. SEC member Hester Peirce dissented, saying that the SEC unfairly applies a higher standard to bitcoin products and that "no filing will meet the ever-shifting standards that this commission insists on applying to bitcoin-related products -- and only to bitcoin-related products." CoinDesk (UK) (26 Feb.)

The European Banking Federation is preparing to ask EU officials to keep politics out of banking and to ensure post-Brexit ties between the EU and the UK run smoothly. The federation is working on a document to illustrate how equivalence could "avoid fragmentation in European financial markets," spokesman Raymond Frenken says. BNN Bloomberg (Canada) (26 Feb.)

Money managers are concerned by a European Commission suggestion that a ban on bundled research and transaction payments under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive be amended to exempt small and midsize businesses. "I think it would be a danger to consider exempting some parts of the market from those rules, as that will only create further unintended consequences," Federated Hermes investment manager Eoin Murray says. Pensions & Investments (free access for SmartBrief readers) (24 Feb.)