Wall Street Journal
Despite the anger harbored by Main Street investors toward brokers who sold them auction-rate securities, some of the people trying to protect consumers say individual brokers may not be to blame. Instead, some regulators and investors’ lawyers argue, brokerage firms are responsible. The firms had a bird’s-eye view of the now-frozen auction-rate securities market and […]
Wall Street Journal
A group of four law firms has filed additional investor arbitration claims against Bear Stearns Cos. and a fund manager alleging the firm was less than candid with investors in one of its hedge funds. “Our investigation indicates that officials at Bear Stearns engaged in a concerted effort to conceal the true state of affairs […]
ADRWorld.com
In order to make more information available to the public and regulators, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently proposed a rule amendment that would require securities brokerage firms to report brokers who allegedly engaged in a sales practice violation but are not named as parties in an arbitration proceedings or a civil lawsuit. The […]
Dow Jones Newswires
A proposed rule meant to improve public disclosure of customer complaints against brokers is making some in the industry nervous about whether a wave of auction-rate securities lawsuits may unfairly blemish brokers’ records. Published last week by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, the rule would require brokers to include on their records arbitration […]
Kansas City Star
Be wary of brokers and bankers touting can’t-lose investments that turn out to be anything but. That’s the hard lesson learned by thousands of consumers just now finding their savings are irretrievably stuck in something called auction rate certificates, or ARCs. They were told the obscure investments were as safe and liquid as money markets, […]