broker-dealer

With any luck, you can go your entire career in the securities industry without ever participating in the dreaded “Wells process.” And that’s a good thing, as the Wells process occurs only after FINRA has completed an examination and has concluded that whatever it has encountered is so serious that a formal disciplinary action is…

Fans of this blog (or, at least, readers of this blog who are fans of Jeopardy) will no doubt remember Alan’s prior post, published a few weeks ago, and discussing a recent case that FINRA’s Department of Enforcement brought against one of our clients. From the very beginning, we, as her counsel, were both…

Yesterday, NASAA released a Model Fee Disclosure Template for broker-dealers, urging firms voluntarily to adopt the model as a means of clearly disclosing to customers and prospective customers the types and amounts of various miscellaneous fees that BDs ordinarily charge their customers. Working with FINRA, SIFMA, the FSI, LPL Financial LLC, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney…

In what many will likely consider to be an effort to quiet the increasing chorus of criticism over the SEC’s increased use of administrative proceedings over the last few years, today, the SEC announced a proposal to amend several of the rules governing those proceedings. While the SEC did not expressly acknowledge that the amendments…

A couple of events caught my attention this week and, since they are related, I thought I’d address them together.

On Monday, the SEC announced a proposed rule change to FINRA Rule 8312, the FINRA BrokerCheck Disclosure Rule. Rule 8312 permits FINRA to disclose certain information on BrokerCheck about registered individuals. As many of you…

Much like some people (well, me, anyway) enjoy debating what was the first “punk rock” song to go mainstream (Pump It Up, by Elvis Costello, of course), others more erudite than I prefer, instead, to argue about what it was that initially propelled FINRA down its current Enforcement oriented path. To me, the answer has…

I am currently in the midst of a FINRA examination that is largely focused on the adequacy of the due diligence that my broker-dealer client conducted of a private placement. What is puzzling about the exam is that FINRA is not just interested in the due diligence that was conducted prior to effecting any sales…

I have written before about some of FINRA’s procedural processes that seem strange and unfair. For instance, the constitutionally guaranteed Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination? Doesn’t exist in FINRA world. Try invoking the Fifth at a FINRA OTR rather than answering a question and you will be facing a permanent bar for violating Rule 8210.…