Nearly every person in the securities business has to be registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. And as a result, they are subject to FINRA’s disciplinary authority for violating the rules of FINRA and the SEC. If they are disciplined, sanctions can include being barred […]
Read MoreSEC Rule 15c2-11 provides that before a broker-dealer can quote a security in the market it has to have reasonably current publicly available information about the subject company. The broker-dealer has to have specified information if the company is not traded on a securities exchange. Rule […]
Read MoreHeads-up to anyone holding restricted securities: Better act now because Congress’s Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act could fix you pretty good! Woe to the person holding securities of a company that is not freely traded. People who are affiliates/controlling persons of the company or people who […]
Read MoreBackground Many people know about Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street. Possibly from seeing the movie of that name. He made his fortune by aggressively marketing penny stocks, many of them fraudulently, to retail customers. Many are also aware of the SEC’s recently adopted Regulation […]
Read MoreWHAT? You wouldn’t think that the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest (Regulation BI) and Customer Relationship Summary (Form CRS) rules would apply to the investment banker/finder who helps small companies and their owners sell, merge or raise capital. But they do. Regulation BI and Form CRS Regulation […]
Read MoreSEC Chairman Jay Clayton for the first time laid out the bases for settling an enforcement action. They are interesting, but to a large extent reflect the bases for terminating an investigation set out in the SEC’s Enforcement Division Enforcement Manual. By the way, the Enforcement […]
Read MoreI attended a recent program sponsored by Winston & Strawn and Promontory Financial Group. Among the speakers were two former senior officials from the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspection and Examination (OCIE). The program focused on SEC inspections of investment advisers. The two former OCIE officials […]
Read MoreRule and Business FINRA requires a brokerage firm to have written supervisory procedures (WSP) that cover all the businesses in which it engages. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department (FinCEN) requires brokerage firms to have written supervisory procedures to comply with the Bank […]
Read MoreThe 5% mark-up policy has been in the NASD and FINRA rule books since 1943, now part of Rule 2121, Fair Prices and Commissions. But a recent settled FINRA enforcement case suggests that FINRA Enforcement no longer honors it. A version of this blog was provided […]
Read MoreNo one wants to overpay their registered representatives. But recent cases and the existence of a class of lawyers that sue firms for delays, failure to pay or underpayment of registered representatives require broker-dealers to review their payment practices. According to Joe Sipkin, of Lerner & […]
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