Instinet has paid a $3.8 million fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and settled allegations that the institutional broker failed to fulfill its reporting obligation “timely and accurately” to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system from June 2020 to the present, according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO). The ambitious, big data, securities transaction… Read More >>
FINRA Fines LPL $3M for Wire Transfer Woes
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined LPL Financial (LPL) $3 million and ordered the firm to pay $100,000 plus interest in restitution because the firm allegedly “failed to reasonably supervise transfers of customer funds to third parties,” according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for U.S. broker-dealers. LPL, a FINRA member since 1973, has… Read More >>
Raymond James Settles Charges of High Fees for $12M
Raymond James & Associates, Inc., and Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. have been ordered to “return $8.25 million, plus interest, to customers who were charged unreasonably high fees.” That is the top-line conclusion of a multi-state investigation of brokers who overcharged investors. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin, spearheaded the investigation, which also… Read More >>
Merrill Lynch Pays $12M to Resolve SAR Charges
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and its parent company BAC North America Holding Co. (BACNAH) have settled with the SEC and FINRA over charges that the broker-dealer failed to file approximately 1,500 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) from 2009 to late 2019, resulting in penalties and fines totaling $12 million. The SAR shortcomings came… Read More >>
FINRA Expels Firm on Multiple ‘Reg BI’ Charges
Broker-dealer Monmouth Capital Management has been expelled by the self-regulatory organization FINRA, which cites a long list of alleged violations led by excessive trading of client accounts that was not rectified despite many red flags pointing to problems. “Monmouth has been a FINRA member since July 2018. The firm has one branch office located in… Read More >>
Credit Suisse Unit Fined for Alleged TRACE Woes
FINRA has fined and censured Credit Suisse Securities (USA), a division of the former Credit Suisse, for reporting 9,000 late trades to the self-regulatory organization’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) and for hundreds of thousands of inaccurate TRACE reports – all of which led to other complications. The Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse, beleaguered… Read More >>
FINRA Fines Vanguard $800K for Inaccurate Fund Statements
Shouldn’t a firm like Vanguard Marketing Corp., (VMC) which has been a member of FINRA, the broker-dealer industry’s self-regulatory organization, since 1977, know better than to have allegedly “overstated projected yield and projected annual income for nine money market funds on approximately 8.5 million VMC account statements?” Says FINRA: “From at least October 2019 to… Read More >>
FINRA Expels Long Island Firm & Suspends CEO
Forget for just a moment, if you can, the $75 million Deutsche Bank will pay to settle a lawsuit brought by the alleged victims of the late-but-not-great financier Jeffrey Epstein and turn your attention to Long Island, New York. (Forget too, if you can, that George Santos, the monumentally unfit U.S. Congressman is supposed to… Read More >>
N.Y. Attorney General Wants New Crypto Regulations
New York Attorney General Letitia James is no stranger to controversy and to major legal forays such as her recently proposed legislation, described as “the strongest and most comprehensive set of regulations” in the U.S. to govern cryptocurrency markets. The proposed legislation, the Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency & Oversight (CRPTO) Act, would give James more… Read More >>
FINRA to Tag Errant Firms as ‘Restricted’
If you’re a broker-dealer firm, you might want to mark June 1, 2023 on your calendar. That’s the enforcement start date for a new FINRA designation: Restricted. Restricted as in there’s a history of misconduct allegations against the firm. And restricted because the firm presents a “high degree of risk to the investing public.” So… Read More >>
