\t\t\t\tSantander Securities LLC has notified its Puerto Rico clients by letter that its San Juan branch will shutter its doors to the public on May 25. Santander Securities (SAN) is Banco Santander\u2019s investment division. The move is part of the investment wing\u2019s plan to move to a service-only model rather than its model that involves offering investment advice and soliciting sales. A scaled down staff will stay on at the branch after it closes.<\/p>\n
Santander Securities in Puerto Rico has come under close scrutiny over the last five years. It is one of the investment firms that came under fire beginning in 2013 when Puerto Rico bonds and bond funds saw a steep drop in value and tens of thousands of investors sustained huge investment losses. Many of these investors should never have even purchased such volatile securities, which were always too risky for their portfolios and not in line with their investment goals. Yet Santander Securities brokers, as well as brokers from UBS Puerto Rico (UBS-PR), Banco Popular, and other investment firms, pushed them on clients, often in very high concentrations.<\/p>\n