UBS AG unit UBS Wealth Management Americas recently recruited Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch financial adviser Nina Hakim to join its Westfield, New Jersey office. Hakim, who reportedly managed $300 million in client assets and generated $1.5 million in commissions and fees, will now report to UBS branch Manager…
Even though it’s been awhile the auction-rate securities market froze in 2008, credit-ratings firm Fitch Ratings’s new report says that US closed-end funds still hold $26.4 billion in auction-rate preferred shares (ARPS). Researchers say that even though this figure is a 57% drop from the $61.8 billion that was trapped…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s proposal to expand publicly available information about auction rate securities and municipal variable rate demand obligations. The SEC also approved letting the MSRB require that municipal securities dealers provide more information about these securities while allowing them…
A class-action securities complaint has been filed against Charles Schwab & Co. on behalf of investors that own Schwab Total Bond Market Fund (Nasdaq: SWBLX) shares that were purchased after May 31, 2007. The securities fraud lawsuit accuses Charles Schwab of causing the fund to deviate from its fundamental business…
Raymond James and Associates Inc. and financial advisor Larry Milton must pay Rex and Sherese Glendenning $925,000, says a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel. The Texas securities case involved an auction-rate securities dispute. brokerage firm advisor Milton has been accused of misrepresenting that the ARS the couple invested in was…
Eaton Vance Management says that five of the closed-end management investment companies that it advises have each received a demand letter on behalf of a putative common shareholder of the “Trusts” alleging breach of fiduciary duty related to the redemption of auction preferred securities after the auction markets failed in…
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel says that Raymond James and financial advisor Larry Milton must pay Sherese and Rex Glendenning $925,000 over an auction-rate securities dispute. This is the third time this summer that Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE: RFJ) subsidiaries have been involved in an ARS dispute that…
Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America‘s former chief executive, says that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s securities fraud allegations in connection with the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch are without merit. Lewis is accused of purposely withholding information from the shareholders who approved Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill.…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered Zions Direct Inc., Zions Bancorp’s (ZION) brokerage unit, to pay $225,000 to settle securities fraud allegations that it failed to disclose conflicts of interest in online certificate-of-deposits auctions. According to the SRO, from February 2007 to November 2008, the Utah broker-dealer failed to…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the North American Securities Administrators Association have updated their 2008 report regarding financial firms’ best practices when serving elderly investors. The security regulators remain committed to making sure that seniors are given a “fair market” with responsible sales practices…