By now, it should be clear, we are oft to criticize FINRA in this blog. Much of that criticism is self-inflicted by, in our view, their unfair or unreasonable decisions. But, in a departure from the norm, I want to recognize an instance when FINRA is getting something right.
Effective this Friday, there will be…
We have complained before in this blog about some of the obvious inequities associated with the FINRA Enforcement process that disfavor respondents. But I heard of a new one this week from a colleague, so I thought I would take the opportunity to revisit the issue.
While there are several things problematic about the Code…
FINRA recently announced a multi-million dollar ad campaign to increase public awareness of BrokerCheck, in an effort to increase the number of investors who actually use it. I had a few initial thoughts.
First, as I have observed before, it is hardly a secret that BrokerCheck does not serve as the basis for the vast…
I recently had two clients, both respondents in pending matters – ask me the same question in the same day: should I mediate this case? The answers I gave them differed dramatically, not just because the facts of each case were very different, but because one case was a customer arbitration, where we are defending…
I wish I was able to report some fireworks, or something semi-controversial, but FINRA and its hand-picked panelists managed to avoid saying anything particularly remarkable in any way. If you have never attended one of these conferences, and think that people come to learn cutting edge strategies, forget it. It is all very basic, very…
Here are my thoughts after Day One.
At a minimum, you would have to admit that FINRA has a sense of humor: the song they played when Rick Ketchum, FINRA’s Chairman, was introduced to give his keynote speech was “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” the 1975 song by War. Predictably, there were few laughs after…
I am in DC, to attend the annual FINRA conference that starts tomorrow morning. I have been to many of these over the years, formerly as the Director of NASD’s Atlanta District Office, but, over the last ten years, as a lawyer who defends brokers and broker-dealers against, among other things, FINRA allegations of misconduct.…
Look, I get that nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes, it’s just human nature. I told my kids when they were growing up the same thing I tell my associates: it’s ok to make mistakes, it’s just not ok to repeat them. Sadly, my broker-dealer clients live in a heavily regulated environment, so when they…
Just a week ago, I ran a post about FINRA’s Sanction Guidelines, suggesting that they appear to have no relevance anymore, given the vast disparity between fines that FINRA is actually imposing in settled cases, on the one hand, and the supposed maximum fines described in the Sanction Guidelines, on the other. In an excellent…
In a recent blog post, I wrote about the challenge a rapidly deteriorating change in mental capacity can cause BDs and RRs alike. Often, we are asked to speak to groups and firms, and this subject is a popular one. In my view, there are a couple of reasons for this development.
First, FINRA has…
