Broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith (MLPF&S) will be paying a $2.8 million fine to the self-regulatory organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), for a variety of alleged reporting violations over several years that the firm acknowledges it is addressing. FINRA officials say they are citing MLPF&S for systemic trade reporting problems, including… Read More >>
FINRA Fines Avenir Financial $229K and Bars Ex-CEO on Fraud Charges
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) hearing panel has fined New York-based Avenir Financial Group $229,000 for “misconduct including the fraudulent sales of equity interests in the firm and promissory notes,” and suspended it for two years from engaging in any self-offerings. In addition, the FINRA panel has barred former CEO and Chief Compliance Officer… Read More >>
Barclays Penalized for EFRP Records Violations
A U.S. regulator has cited Barclays Bank on charges of record-keeping violations and is imposing a $500,000 civil monetary penalty upon the bank, months after the U.K. banking giant was cited for problems with its submissions of large trader reports (LTRs) on physical commodity swap positions. The CFTC, the regulator in both cases, is now… Read More >>
Ameriprise Fined $850K for Missing Theft by Registered Rep
Ameriprise Financial Services and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have settled an ongoing case in which Ameriprise was charged with failing to act on red flags regarding the theft of “more than $370,000 from five customer brokerage accounts by one of its registered representatives,” according to FINRA officials. The settlement involves a fine of… Read More >>
FINRA Says Boiler Room Scams On the Rise
Among the unfortunate trends that have made a comeback is the “boiler room-style calls touting the next hot stock,” say officials at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a non-governmental, self-regulating organization (SRO) focused on broker-dealers. As glamorized in the movie “Boiler Room,” from 2000 and later in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” from 2013,… Read More >>
BarCap to Pay $2M in CFTC, FINRA Fines
Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the London-based banking multinational, has been hit with $2.1 million in fines for various reporting, clearing and trading violations, and for related supervision failures. Those penalties include an $800,000 fine from the CFTC and a $1.3 million fine from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). FINRA fined BarCap,… Read More >>
Deutsche Bank Fined $12M for Bad Squawk Box Talk
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the German institution, will be paying a $12.5 million fine for “significant supervisory failures” that allowed “confidential, price-sensitive information” to be spread among employees via the “hoot and holler” system of internal speakers or “squawk boxes” that populate trading floors and offices. Officials as the… Read More >>
FINRA Readies New Executive Line-Up
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will have a new chairman when John J. “Jack” Brennan, Vanguard Group chairman emeritus and senior advisor, takes over later this month, following the news that Robert W. Cook will become FINRA’s new CEO and president. Brennan and Cook are expected to assume their new posts by August 15,… Read More >>
Smarsh, Symphony Partner to Ease Digital Compliance
Smarsh, a vendor of cloud-based archiving, and Symphony Communication Services, a chat and collaboration vendor, are joining forces to help their mutual clients archive, search and produce Symphony content to support the recordkeeping and electronic communication oversight requirements of regulators FINRA and the SEC. Symphony is an open source communications platform that features security support,… Read More >>
Citi and Others Sing the ‘Blue Sheet’ Blues
Regulators are continuing their crackdown on securities firms that send erroneous or incomplete information about their transactions as evidenced by the SEC hitting Citigroup Global Markets with the largest penalty so far — $7 million — for “a computer coding error” that caused incomplete “blue sheet” information about executed trades to be sent to the… Read More >>
