Blog
July 21, 2020
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against broker-dealer UBS Financial Services Inc. for failing to report suspicious transactions in customer accounts. UBS agreed to pay a $5 million civil penalty to resolve the SEC’s charges, and separately agreed to pay $10 million to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) […]
April 1, 2020
Attorneys are providing notice of their investigation of UBS Financial Services, Inc. (“UBS”) for possible sales practice violations, including but not limited to failing to disclose material risks associated with its ETRACS product. ETRACS Exchange Traded Notes are senior, unsecured, unsubordinated debt securities that are designed to track the total return of a specific market […]
August 26, 2019
On August 23, 2019, an extensive article in The Wall Street Journal (“UBS Faces Client Backlash over Options Strategy”), exposed a complex investment strategy pitched as low-risk by stockbrokers at UBS Group AG (NYSE – UBS) that has triggered a backlash from clients of its securities unit. The strategy, called Yield Enhancement Strategy, or “YES,” has reportedly […]
February 14, 2019
The firm is investigating the sale of the Yield Enhancement Strategy (“YES”) recommended by financial advisors to UBS customers. The investigation focuses on UBS sales practices and representations made in connection with the recommendation of the UBS YES program for fixed income customers. UBS’s Yield Enhancement Strategy (“YES”) reportedly had over $5 billion under management […]
October 3, 2016
On September 28, 2016, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission announced that it had imposed severe monetary penalties on UBS Financial Services in connection with the firm’s activities involving nearly $10.7 billion of stock-linked reverse convertible notes (“RCNs”) that had been sold to approximately 44,000 customer accounts between 2011 and 2014. (“In the Matter of […]