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FINRA Announces Arbitration Task Force

FINRA

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today the formation of a 13-member Arbitration Task Force to consider possible enhancements to its arbitration forum to improve the transparency, impartiality and efficiency of FINRA’s securities arbitration forum for all participants. “FINRA’s mission is to protect investors and support their confidence in the capital markets,” said Richard […]

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A broker, a client – and years of misdirected checks

Reuters

This is the case of a securities broker who spent nine years depositing his client’s dividend checks into his personal account before the situation caught up to him. For financial advisers, it’s a cautionary tale: If something doesn’t smell right, it will eventually draw attention. Richard Harvey Peress deposited 37 quarterly dividend checks totaling $11,460 […]

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Finra Weighs Tougher Stance

Wall Street Journal

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street watchdog overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is considering tougher penalties for misconduct after criticism from an SEC official that its sanctions are too lenient. In the five years since the financial crisis, Finra, which is funded by the industry, didn’t discipline any Wall Street executives. […]

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The SEC's new investor advocate takes on tough assignment

Reuters

It seems ironic that a federal agency with a longstanding mandate to protect investors would need a new advocate to do just that. Nonetheless, Rick Fleming, the first head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Advocate, is busy setting up shop, staffing a six-person office and setting priorities. The 2010 Dodd-Frank […]

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The Pepperdine Model: Learn First-Then Practice

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

On January 8, 2010, FINRA’s Investor Education Foundation awarded Pepperdine University School of Law’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution a grant of $250,000 to establish a comprehensive clinical education program in investor advocacy.  In 2010, Robert Uhl was appointed as the first Director and as an adjunct professor at the Pepperdine University School of Law […]

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