Almost three years ago, in Reg Notice 18-08, FINRA wisely (but, nevertheless, still a bit late to the party) proposed to revise its own prior guidance regarding the troublesome intersection between outside business activities and investment advisor business, guidance that FINRA itself acknowledged had “caused significant confusion and practical challenges.” Specifically, in crusty old
FINRA
SEC Settlement Proves That When CCOs Spot A Problem, Silence Is Not Golden
By Alan Wolper on
FYI, in February, Ulmer & Berne will be hosting a series of webinars on the following: FINRA Expungement: Rule Changes and Updates on Tuesday, February 9 2:00 PM EST; SEC Update: Reg BI, Enforcement Activity, and the Willfulness Standard on Thursday, February 11, 2021 at 2:00 PM EST; Data Protection & Cybersecurity Challenges for Financial …
The (Possible) Benefit Of Self-Reporting And Internal Discipline
By Alan Wolper on
Historically, one of the surest ways to get yourself permanently barred from the industry is to forge a customer’s signature on something. According to the pertinent Sanction Guideline, at a minimum, a forgery, that is, a true forgery – a signature that is neither authorized nor subsequently ratified by the customer – should result in…
LPL AWC Proves, Once Again, That Big Firms Can Buy Their Way Out Of Trouble That Would Kill Small Firms
By Alan Wolper on
LPL may be the biggest BD in the country, with 21,500 reps operating out of almost 13,000 branch offices. Heaven knows how much money it brings in every year, but, goodness, it must be a lot. And good thing, too, given how much the firm keeps paying to FINRA in fines for its serial, repeated,…
Another Fine Churning Mess
By Alan Wolper on
I apologize for taking so long between posts, but, to be fair, there’s been a lot going on in the past week or so that has captured my attention! I wish everyone a happy and SAFE new year! – Alan
While undoubtedly FINRA will be issuing its annual “examination priorities” letter any day now, that…
What If FINRA Held An Election And Nobody Came?
By Alan Wolper on
Not too long ago, I posted a blog complaining that FINRA’s Nominating Committee had basically abdicated its responsibility to identify suitable candidates for certain seats on FINRA’s Board. Perhaps not surprisingly, I never heard – from anyone, but least of all FINRA itself – why the Nominating Committee had punted. But, I put my head…
FINRA’s SD Proposal Is Smart. Let’s Hope It’s Just The Start
By Alan Wolper on
Posted in FINRA, Statutory Disqualification
There is a little corner of the FINRA world that most people never have the need or desire to visit, and that’s the not-so-quaint village of statutory disqualification. SD, for short. I have written about this sad place many times, mostly about those poor souls who manage to end up here through confusion, or, too…
Let’s Hear It For CCOs; After All, They Are Human People
By Alan Wolper on
We have frequently blogged here about the degree of attention that regulators pay to Chief Compliance Officers, and whether it is proper that they sometimes are named individually in Enforcement actions. And we are hardly the only ones who see this issue. The New York City Bar back in February – I know, that seems…
The Rare Case Of The Unsuitable Strategy
By Alan Wolper on
As everyone is likely well aware, one of the principal changes that happened when FINRA retired the old suitability rule – NASD Rule 2310 – and replaced it with shiny new FINRA Rule 2111 back in 2012 was the broadening of the scope of the rule to encompass not just recommendations to buy or sell…
How NOT To Supervise For Churning
By Alan Wolper on
As should be clear to readers of this Blog, I find that Enforcement actions often provide the best guidance in terms of what regulators deem to be unacceptable conduct, which is very useful when dealing with subjective standards like “reasonableness.” This past week, FINRA published an AWC submitted by Coastal Equities, Inc. that offers a…