Financial Industry Regulatory Authority CEO and Chairman Richard G. Ketchum says that with more investors getting involved in sophisticated investments, broker-dealers must do a more thorough job of informing them of the risks involved in complex financial instruments. Speaking at FINRA’s yearly conference in DC, Ketchum said that now is…
Many banks are reportedly greeting bipartisan Senate bill S. 710 with satisfaction, as it would exempt them from provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act related to regulating municipal advisers. The bill was introduced by US Senators Patrick Toomey (R-Pa) and Mark Warner (D-VA) last month.…
Blake Richards, a former LPL Financial LLC adviser, is now facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges for allegedly defrauding investors and misappropriating about $2 million from at least seven customers. Most of the funds that were misappropriated were life insurance proceeds from dead spouses and retirement funds. Last week, the…
State Securities Regulators and others are battling over how the US Securities and Exchange Commission should create a $50 million offering cap for exempt offerings under regulation A. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act had ordered the SEC to establish the new exemption but gave no deadline. Referred to by…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Panel is ordering Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS) to pay about $2.5M to Tracy Landow for recommending that she invest in the Goldman Sachs Special Opportunities Fund 2006, which she is now contending was an investment that was not appropriate for her. Landow filed her…
Investment News is reporting that in the wake of pressure from regulators, Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc., Cetera Financial Group Inc. and VSR Financial Services Inc., are modifying the way they sell specific alternative investments, including nontraded real estate investment trusts, by revising current policy or including no…
New SEC Chairman Reviews “Neither Admit, Nor Deny Wrongdoing” Policy Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White is taking a closer look at the agency’s practice of letting defendants that settle cases with it not have to admit to or deny the allegations. Critics of the policy have been…
In what is being called the SRO’s largest fine to date over e-mail violations, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that it is fining LPL Financial LLC $7.5 million over 35 key e-mail system failures. The financial firm also has to set up a $1.5 million fund to compensate customers…
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin announced today that the state has reached a $9.6M securities settlement with five independent brokerage dealers-Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. (AMP), Commonwealth Financial Network, Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., Royal Alliance Associates Inc., & Securities America Inc.-over the allegedly inappropriate sale of nontraded real…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that LPL Financial LLC must pay a $7.5 million fine for inadequately supervising more than 28 million business emails between 2007 and 2013. This is the largest fine the SRO has ever imposed over an e-mail case. According to FINRA, LPL’s systems for overseeing…