The North American Securities Administrators Association is criticizing an amendment introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). SA 4009, an amendment to the Senate financial regulatory reform bill (S. 3217), would protect variable annuities sellers from the fiduciary standard. While her amendment imposes a fiduciary standard on broker-dealers that offer investment…
A number of watchdog groups want Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to support an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that he is sponsoring. The bill lets the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission set up bounty programs for whistleblowers that approach them…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says that Deutsche Bank Securities and National Financial Services LLC have consented to be fined $925,000 in total for supervisory violations, as well as Regulation SHO short sale restrictions violations. By agreeing to settle, the broker-dealers are not denying or admitting to the charges. FINRA…
In a May 10 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, JP Morgan Chase & Co. says that an SEC regional office intends to recommend that the agency file charges against the investment bank for securities violations involving the selling or bidding of derivatives and guaranteed investment contracts (GICs). JP Morgan says…
The Securities and Exchange Commission says that the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut has approved a Fair Fund distribution that will give back $795,000 to the State of Connecticut Retirement and Trust Funds, which suffered financial losses because of an investment scam involving William A. DiBella, the…
According to the director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management Andrew Donohue, its staff is close to recommending that the SEC adopt a proposed rule mandating that mutual funds give clients better information about the uses of Rule 12b-1 distribution fees and their amounts. The fees…
The SEC has filed securities fraud charges against the private equity firm, Onyx Capital Advisors LLC, its founder Roy Dixon Jr., and his friend Michael Farr. The agency is accusing the defendants of stealing over $3 million from three area public pension funds. According to the SEC, Onyx Capital Advisors…
The Wall Street Journal reports that as Solicitor General of the United States, US Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan has sided with investor interests in two high profile lawsuits. In one securities fraud complaint that looked at when shareholders can sue mutual–fund mangers that had allegedly charged fees that were…
State District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky has frozen the assets of Retirement Value LLC and appointed a receiver to take control of the New Braunfels company, which faces allegations of Texas securities fraud related to the sale of investments linked to death benefits from life insurance policies. The Texas State…
At a recent hearing, US Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill), who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Financial Services subcommittee, told Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro that he was “puzzled” by the SEC’s request for funds to start aggressive oversight of credit ratings agencies in 2011. Earlier this year,…