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
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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…
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…
FINRA Zoom Hearing Goes BOOM!
By Alan Wolper on
Attentive readers will recall that a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in a preface to great post from Chris about expungement becoming an endangered creature due to changes in FINRA rule that I was about to embark on a two-week FINRA Enforcement hearing, all done by Zoom, by consent. I promised to provide some…
SEC’s Reg BI Roundtable Round-up
By Heidi VonderHeide on
On October 26, the SEC hosted a roundtable discussion during which the SEC and FINRA shared some of their observations about how firms are doing implementing Regulation Best Interest. If you missed the live presentation, it was recorded and is available here.
The discussion covered a lot of topics and, in some instances, simply…
FINRA AWC Provides New Defense To Allegation Of “Willfulness”
By Alan Wolper on
I dare you. In fact, I double-dog dare you to figure out how or why FINRA decides to charge willfulness in some cases but not in others. Bottom line is that it is nearly impossible (except if you’re a big firm, in which case you can rest easy that FINRA will manage to skip the…
The Trouble With Texts
By Alan Wolper on
Having completed my Enforcement hearing conducted by Zoom – more about that in an upcoming post – I can finally turn my attention back to some matters that arose while I was busy.
One that stood out for the sheer (and frightening) universality of its lesson is an SEC settlement entered into by Jonestrading Institutional…
FINRA Is About To Make It MUCH Harder To Obtain Expungement – Part Two
By Chris Seps on
Here is the second part of Chris’s blog on FINRA’s effort to make expungement harder and more expensive to obtain. It is remarkable to me just how blatant FINRA has been here in admitting the reasons for the rule amendments. Anyone who thinks that FINRA is a membership organization that actually cares for its members…
FINRA Is About To Make It MUCH Harder To Obtain Expungement – Part One
By Chris Seps on
I apologize for the long break between blog posts, but I have been preparing for a two-week FINRA Enforcement hearing…to be conducted by Zoom! As is typical of most Enforcement cases that go to hearing, the Staff has insisted that — surprise! — my clients be permanently barred. So, while the method of communication will…