The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has fined Berthel Fisher & Company Financial Services, Inc. and its affiliate, Securities Management & Research, Inc., of Marion, Iowa, a combined $775,000 for supervisory deficiencies, including Berthel Fisher’s failure to supervise the sale of non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), and leveraged and inverse […]
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that its Board of Governors approved a rule proposal that would prohibit firms and associated persons from conditioning settlements of customer disputes on, or otherwise compensating customers for, an agreement not to oppose a request to expunge information from an associated person’s Central Registration Depository (CRD) record. […]
On Tuesday, October 15, 2013, FINRA Dispute Resolution published the following guidance and reminder for arbitrators when considering expungement requests. Extraordinary Nature of Expungement Relief — Expungement is an extraordinary remedy that should be granted only under appropriate circumstances. Information should be expunged only when it has no meaningful investor protection or regulatory value. Once […]
The SEC approved a FINRA rule proposal which simplifies the way investors select arbitrators in disputes with their brokerage firms. Arbitrations, rather than court proceedings, are mandatory in disputes between investors and their brokers, who are regulated by FINRA — the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Clients and brokers have some options to chose the arbitrators from a pool of […]
The system of mandatory arbitration of disputes between brokerage firms and customers is again in the news. This time the North American Securities Administrators Assocation, Inc. has been lobbying the SEC to act on its authority under Dodd-Frank to end or limit the use of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements included in virtually all customer agreements […]