FINRA came out with a slightly weird Regulatory Notice last week. In a succinct document, barely over two pages, FINRA addressed something that may, or may not, actually be of concern to anyone. In short, Regulatory Notice 19-10 states FINRA’s position on what a broker-dealer is supposed to tell the customers of a registered representative
Wolper
Wedbush Learns That It’s Not Enough Just To Spot Red Flags
By UB Greensfelder on
Posted in SEC, Supervision
I have been busy the last month getting ready for a big arbitration, and attending the first week of what looks like is going to be a four- or five-week slog when all is said and done. So, I am just catching up on some recent developments, and mulling over what might be of interest…
FINRA Says, Proof? We Don’t Need Your Stinkin’ Proof
By UB Greensfelder on
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that over my last few posts, I have been talking about an increasingly visible effort by FINRA to turn its regulatory eye from rogue brokers – who have been an irritant to FINRA and NASD for decades – to rogue firms (my term,…
FINRA Is Going After “High-Risk” Firms, But First Has To Invent The Definition Of High-Risk
By UB Greensfelder on
I told you two weeks ago in my blog post that this would happen. I told you that when Robert Cook announced the topics to be taken up at the February/March FINRA Board meeting in Boca Raton, he slipped and used the new phrase “high-risk firms.” Well, in yesterday’s announcement about what actually took place…
FINRA Coins A Scary New Term: “High-Risk Firms”
By UB Greensfelder on
Yesterday, FINRA sent a seemingly innocuous memo to member firms giving a brief outline of the subjects that its Board will take up at its meeting this week in sunny Boca Raton, Florida. (Wait, the Board isn’t meeting in Washington, as it normally does, but, rather, in south Florida? Oh, right, it’s February. Much better…
Contrary To What FINRA Believes, Rule 8210 Is Not A Search Warrant
By UB Greensfelder on
I have been waiting for a while to write about this issue, since it arose in an Enforcement case I handled for a client, and I wanted the matter to run its full course at FINRA before I started throwing stones. Sadly, there are so many things I could complain about here. The fact that…
The Securities Regulators All Have Senior-itis. Maybe For Good Reason.
By UB Greensfelder on
The securities industry’s concern over the aging of the U.S. population, specifically, aging investors, has, apparently, reached a fever pitch. Yesterday in New York, SIFMA hosted its “Senior Investor Protection Conference – One Year Later: FINRA Rules 2165 and 4512,” and, for a securities conference, it received pretty extensive news coverage. I saw at least…
FINRA’s 529 Share Class Self-Disclosure Initiative: If It’s Good Enough For The SEC, It Must Be Good Enough For FINRA
By UB Greensfelder on
About a year ago, the SEC offered investment advisors the unique opportunity to report themselves to the SEC if they sold mutual funds to their clients that offered a lower priced share class than the class actually selected by the advisor, but failed adequately to disclose the conflict of interest that created. For those advisors…
FINRA’s 2019 Examination Priorities Letter: Beware, More Of The Same Is Coming
By UB Greensfelder on
In what has become an annual, but hardly exciting – I mean, it’s not like anxiously awaiting the day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training – tradition, with the turning of the calendar to the new year, FINRA has once again released a letter announcing what it deems to be its priorities for…
The Disturbingly Cozy Relationship Between FINRA And PIABA
By UB Greensfelder on
What exists at the point where PIABA’s transparent self-interest in getting paid and FINRA’s historical lack of transparency about who is actually driving its agenda regarding arbitrations? This: a late December decision by FINRA to propose a rule that prohibits non-lawyers from representing – for a fee – customers in arbitrations, and an even more…