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…
Articles Posted in Stockbroker Regulation
Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, DeutscheBank and other Firms Fined for Failing to Deliver Trade Confirmations.
NYSE Regulation fined 14 of its member firms a total of $10.4 million in fines for failing to deliver trade confirmations to their clients and other violations. Citigroup Global Markets received the heaviest fine of $2.25 million for failing to deliver trade confirmation documents in more than a million consumer…
EKN Financial Services Fined and Sanctioned for Transactions in Unregistered Securities
The NASD imposed a $200,000 fine against EKN Financial Services Inc. and levied sanctions against the firm’s CEO, President, Head Trader and Financial and Operations Principal for improper short selling in connection with three unregistered PIPE securities offerings. As part of the settlement, EKN was also suspended for six months…
Enforcement Actions Against Brokerage Firms And Individuals Went Down in 2006, Says Study
Last week, a securities law journal published a study illustrating how securities regulators went “soft” last year. According to the study, NYSE and NASD fined securities companies and individuals $111 million in 2006, which was lower than the $184 million in collective fines that their two regulatory units issued in…
NASD Successor “FINRA” Hypes Retail Investor Online Info Section
The new Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has launched a section on its website to provide online information for retail investors. The “Market Data” section on FINRA’s website provides data on equities, options, mutual funds and corporate, municipal, Treasury and Agency bonds. The site also provides a page for all stock…
State Regulators’ Association Seeks to Abolish Bogus Finanical Advisory Designations
The North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. of Washington (NAASA) plans a vote by its members by the end of this year on a proposal which would make it a violation of state securities regulations to “misuse, mischaracterize or fraudulently represent a designation that has little or no value,” said…
New York Court Sides with Ameritrade – Redefines “Best Execution”
Justice for investors is simply denied in New York courts and a trend of no justice for investors threatens to spread nationwide as more and more “activist” business-friendly judges are appointed to the federal bench. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, known to be friendly…
What Worries Your Broker? This Should Scare You!
“There are two things I worry about: Clients dying and the government putting me out of business,” said a Merrill Lynch rep who says he gets about 80% of his revenue from B-shares shares and fee-based business. Apparently, the safety of his clients’ assets must be down the list. Meanwhile,…
Citigroup’s Smith Barney Unit Ordered to Pay $50 Million over Widespread Fraud Charges
In one of its final regulatory acts before being folded into the NASD, the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory unit has censured and fined Smith Barney $50 million over illegal trades, failures to supervise and record-keeping violations. The firm agreed to the sanctions without admitting or denying the charges. The…
As Wall Street Seeks to Lower the Bar, Investors Continue to Say They Value Ethics
It seems that Wall Street has convinced state and federal regulators, as well as Congress and Presidential candidates, that the regulatory bar must be lowered if we are to compete in the international securities market (or perhaps Wall Street’s donations have affected the judgment of these politicians). Yet, studies continue…