Arbitration

FINRA Headlines: New ATSs Sweep Letters Issued, SRO to Provide Surveillance for Direct Edge Market Exchanges, Court Says Ex-AP of Defunct Member Firm Can Enforce Arbitration Pact, & Madoff Feeder Funds Are Not Required to Arbitrate Claims Against KPMG

Published on: June 5, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Issues Sweep Letters About Alternative Trading Systems

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has put out a new round of sweeps letters asking for more information about its review of alternative trading systems. The SRO’s Trading Examinations Unit is reviewing the off-exchange trading venues.

FINRA wants firms to provide information about how subscriber order flow is identified within the ATS, whether they are tracking the different kinds of order types in use, and where the ATSs orders are routed. Sweep letters let the regulator determine how to better focus its exams and discover what new issues may have arisen.

FINRA Securities Activities: SRO Withdraws Proposal to Make Financial Firms Link to BrokerCheck, Gets Request from SIFMA to Modify ‘Inability to Pay’ Rule, and Says Broker-Dealers Can Give Investors PIP Data About ETPs

Published on: May 15, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SRO Says Brokerage Can Institutional Customers PIP Data About ETPs Under Certain Conditions

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority staff have determined that under certain conditions, broker-dealers are permitted to include pre-inception performance information in communications with institutional investors about exchange-traded products, also known as ETPs. Staffers said that FINRA Rule 2210, which governs institutional communications, allows for the use of this data in the way that a fund company is proposing. ALPA Distributors is proposing using the PIP information just in institutional communications, per FINRA Rule 2210 and subject to certain criteria.

However, in “applying the suitability standards” for recommendations to institutional customers,” the SRO said brokerage firms should be cautious about putting too much “weight” on PIP information, while taking into consideration the correlation between performance of other, similar ETPs managed by the investment adviser, sponsor, or index provider and the PIP data. The staff’s letter was in response to a letter written by the fund company, which sees value in giving institutional investors the information for ETPs analysis.

Controversial Democratic Appointee Pushes SEC for Less Talk About Investor and Securities Market Protections and More Action

Published on: April 28, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

According to Securities and Exchange Commissioner Luis Aguilar, the growing number of registered investment advisers, the increasing complexity of the financial instruments they use, and the recent trends in securities examinations show that there is a need for the regulator to up the vigorousness of its investment adviser examinations and enforcement activities. He noted that even as the SEC is working to give the regulated community best practices and guidance to enhance compliance, it also intends to increase its scrutiny of advisers, including more exams (especially for private fund advisers). Alternative investment managers will also get more attention.

Aguilar pointed out that with the number SEC registered investment advisers having gone up about 50% to over 10,000 last year, the value of the assets that they manage also increasing from about $22 trillion in 2002 to approximately $44 trillion in 2011, as well as a rise in the number of complex financial instruments that advisers use, there are more chances for “mischief” to happen. Hence, there is the need for more robust enforcement.

Also, as our securities fraud law firm mentioned in a previous blog post, the SEC commissioner wants there to be an end to mandatory arbitration agreements. Per the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the SEC now can prohibit or limit pre-dispute arbitration agreements, which have become standard fare for brokerage firms. Aguilar is concerned that they are also becoming routine for investment advisory firms. He wants the government to ponder the possibility of adopting rules that would stop or limit broker-dealers and investment advisers from mandating that customers sign clauses in their agreements with one another that prevents them from filing securities fraud lawsuits and instead only resolve their disputes via arbitration.

SEC Commissioner Aguilar Calls For the Abolishment of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements

Published on: April 21, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Luis Aguilar is pressing the government to think about adopting rules that would limit or bar investment advisers and brokers from making customers sign away their right to file a securities fraud case. He made his statements in front of the he North America Securities Administrators Association’s yearly conference.

Aguilar spoke about how it was important to advocate for investor choice. He said that by giving investors the chance to choose how they wish to protect their legal rights and file their legal claims, the government would be enhancing federal securities laws while creating better investor protections.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act gives the Commission new powers to strengthen investor protections, including the authority to restrict pre-dispute arbitration agreements, which brokers routinely use. The agreements bar an investor from being able to sue the financial firm should a disagreement arise. Meantime, corporations generally remain in favor of arbitration as a venue for resolution because they believe this is less costly.

Former Merrill Lynch, Oppenheimer, Deutsche Bank Broker is Ordered by FINRA To Pay Investor $11M Over Alleged Securities Fraud

Published on: April 19, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

A FINRA arbitration panel is ordering ex-broker Karl Hahn, who previously worked with Bank of America Corp’s (BAC) Merrill Lynch (MER), Oppenheimer & Co. (OPY), and Deutsche Bank AG’s (DB) Deutsche Bank Securities, to pay investor Chase Bailey $11 million because he sustained about $6 million in losses allegedly caused by securities fraud. Bailey contends that Hahn made excessive trades and misrepresented securities related to transactions involving a number of investments, including a variable annuity, approximately $2.3 million in fraudulent real estate financing involving East Coast properties, and covered calls.

In the filmmaker/Internet entrepreneur’s securities arbitration claim, Bailey named the three financial firms where Hahn previously worked. It is during this period that Bailey was allegedly defrauded. (He had moved his funds from one brokerage firm to the other each time Hahn was hired by that employer.) Bailey settled his case with Merrill for $700,000, while claims against Deutsche Bank and Oppenheimer were tossed out.

Per the FINRA arbitration ruling, Bailey is awarded $6.4 million in punitive damages and $4.1 million in compensatory damage. Ordering brokers to pay punitive damages is uncommon.

Previous Dissent by Arbitrator is Not Reason to Vacate Award Morgan Keegan Was Ordered to Pay Investors, Says District Court

Published on: April 8, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida is holding that an arbitration award granted to investors cannot be vacated under the Federal Arbitration Act just because an arbitrator exhibited obvious partiality when failing to reveal that he wrote a dissent in an unrelated arbitration that allegedly showed he had prejudged issues of law. The securities case is Antietam Industries Inc. v. Morgan Keegan & Co.

Petitioners Antietam Industries Inc., Janice Warfel, and William Warfel contend they sustained financial losses over their RMK fund investments. In 2011, they filed a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration case claiming that their money was lost because Morgan Keegan had made misrepresentations while failing to disclose how risky the funds were.

Last year, the panel awarded the petitioners $100,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages, plus fees and interest, for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and other claims. When they sought to confirm the award, Morgan Keegan submitted a motion to vacate, pointing to FAA and contending that arbitrator Christopher Mass allegedly showed partiality and “misbehavior” with his failure to disclose his previous dissent. The court, however, rejected Morgan Keegan’s argument, saying it was not convinced that Mass was predisposed or had prejudged.

Texas Courts Show Preference for Arbitration to Resolve Securities Fraud Claims and Other Business Disputes

Published on: February 15, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Over the years, the Texas courts have followed federal courts in that they are now showing a preference that business disputes be resolved in arbitration rather than with a trial. Many view arbitration as a less costly, faster, and more logical way to solve conflicts between a company’s employees and its clients.

This willingness to have disputes be resolved outside a courtroom took on even more fervor in 2009, when the Texas Supreme Court determined that non-signatories in an arbitration agreement could be made to deal with their problems between each other away from the courtroom. The court held that an arbitration agreement between an employee and employer that was signed prior to the employee’s passing binds that employee’s wrongful death beneficiaries even if they didn’t sign the agreement. The state’s highest court said that in states where wrongful death actions are derivative, these are bound by the agreement of the decedent.

Then, in 2012, the Texas Supreme Court again exhibited its approval for dispute resolution methods not having to require a jury when it found in an employment dispute that a threat by an employer to use its legal right to fire an at-will employee if he didn’t sign a jury waiver is not coercion that would render a jury waiver agreement not valid. Also, a standalone arbitration agreement is still valid even if an employer keeps its right to unilaterally change or take back an employment policy in its employee manual. This includes arbitration policies (and even if the arbitration agreement doesn’t talk about the right to modify its terms or of incorporating the employment manual by reference.) Also, mutual promises to bring employment disputes to arbitration are satisfactory consideration for the agreements.

FINRA News Roudup: FINRA Unveils Telephone Mediation Pilot and Proposes A More Stringent Definition of Public Arbitrator

Published on: January 22, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

FINRA Unveils Telephone Mediation Pilot

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says it now has a pilot program that allows parties with simplified cases to choose reduced-fee or pro bono phone mediation. Volunteers with arbitration claims involving $50,000 or under are welcome to participate. In cases involving damage claims of $25,000 or under, mediators would work on a pro bono basis. For cases between $25,001 and $50,000, there would be a reduced fee mediation rate of $50/hour. No administrative fees will be charged.

Benefits to this phone mediation pilot include getting rid of in-person mediation preparation and travel costs, as well as more flexibility and convenience. The pilot was launched on January 15.

After SCOTUS Overturns Oklahoma Supreme Court Decision Over Enforceability of an Arbitration Agreement’s Non-Complete Cause, Case Now Goes to Houston, Texas

Published on: November 30, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

For the third time in two years, the US Supreme Court has stood up for arbitration agreements, overturning yet another decision by a state court. The case is Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard. The Oklahoma State Court had ruled that the non-compete provision in an employment arbitration agreement was unenforceable because it is unconscionable.

Per the specifics of the case, Nitro-Lift Technologies, an oil well servicing company based in Louisiana, had given two of its ex-Oklahoma employees a demand for arbitration after they resigned and went to work for a competitor. Nitro contended that the former employees had violated a non-compete clause and that because of this they must now arbitrate. Meantime, the two ex-employees filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma state court seeking a declaratory judgment that the non-compete provisions could not be enforced.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court would go on to rule in the ex-Nitro employees’ favor, finding that state precedent allows the court jurisdiction over arbitration agreement provisions and that the non-compete clause is a violation of public policy there. Therefore, the court found, the clauses could not be enforced and are void.

FINRA Provides Guidance As It Opens Up Arbitration Process to Investment Advisers

Published on: November 9, 2012 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is now making its arbitration process available to all registered investment advisers. The SRO’s arbitration forum has in the past been for member broker-dealers, but not IA’s, to resolve disagreements. (That said, IAs that are dually registered with FINRA have had to arbitrate via the SRO’s arbitration process if the disagreement pertained to the adviser’s activities as a member of FINRA or as an associated person.) Now, however, FINRA is ready to take arbitration cases against investment advisers as long as the parties involved are both amenable to this.

Some people have expressed concern that opening up FINRA’s arbitration process to these advisers could create problems. For example, seeing as broker-dealers and investment advisers are upheld to different standards under federal law, there has been the worry that FINRA arbitrators might get confused as to which standard applied to a case.

FINRA arbitration lawyer William Shepherd, however, disagrees: “It is true that financial advisors are held to a fiduciary standard by statute, but securities brokers are often held to a ‘common law’ fiduciary standard. For example, brokers are held to a fiduciary standard when they use discretion to invest their clients’ money (either with or without written permission). As well, for decades the FINRA Arbitration Code has allowed cases to be filed for ‘any dispute, claim or controversy.’ Current FINRA arbitrators are savvy enough to make any distinction in the responsibilities of different investment professionals and are likely the most capable persons in existence to decide cases concerning financial advisors.”

FINRA’s decision to open its arbitration process comes during the ongoing discussion about possible self-regulatory oversight for advisers. Bill H.R. 4624 proposes bringing advisers under the supervision of at least one SRO, with FINRA as the potential watchdog. There has, however, been strong opposition to the legislation, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who ushered H.R. 4624, has decided not to keep pushing it forward until a committee consensus is reached.

Meantime, FINRA has put out guidance on how investment advisers who are not members of the SRO can use its mediation and arbitration forum to resolve disagreements with employees and members. Per the guidance on disputes between IAs that are firms not regulated by FINRA and investors/investment adviser employees, the SRO will accept disputes by parties seeking this forum as long as the investor and IA turn in a post-dispute agreement to arbitrate, the IA or other parties consent to pay arbitration surcharge fees, and the investor submits a written submission agreement to send the dispute to FINRA Dispute Resolution (the agreement has to be signed by all parties involved in the arbitration and the signatures need to have been written after the events that led to the dispute happened). FINRA mediation services will be offered for investment adviser disagreements on a voluntary basis.

Guidance on Disputes between Investors and Investment Advisers who are not FINRA-regulated firms, FINRA

FINRA Opening Arbitration Process To Investment Advisers, Spokeswoman Says, Bloomberg/BNA, October 29, 2012

More Blog Posts:
Court Upholds Ex-NBA Star Horace Grant $1.46M FINRA Arbitration Award from Morgan Keegan & Co. Over Mortgage-Backed Bond Losses, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, October 30, 2012

Plaintiff Must Arbitrate Faulty Investment Advice Claim With TD Ameritrade But Can Proceed With Litigation Against Oakwood Capital Management, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, October 29, 2012

Citigroup Ordered by FINRA to Pay $1.2M Over Bond Markups and Markdowns, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, March 27, 2012 Continue Reading ›