Blog
February 8, 2011
The municipal bond market, already under a dark cloud due to rising risk levels, apparently has a pattern of lax financial reporting practices that could further elevate concerns about the market. A new study from DPC Data Inc. found that bond-issuing municipalities in general are delaying or ignoring their annual financial disclosure reporting requirements. In […]
February 2, 2011
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved its proposed rule change to provide customers in all FINRA arbitrations the option of having an all public panel. Historically, in cases with three arbitrators, the panels have been comprised of two public arbitrators and one arbitrator with […]
January 25, 2011
U.S. securities regulators on Friday called for a new uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisers that would require them to put retail customers ahead of their own financial interests. The recommendations, laid out by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a study reviewed by Reuters late on Friday, would drastically alter the landscape […]
January 3, 2011
A FINRA arbitration panel ordered Securities America to pay an investor more than $1.2 million in damages related to losses in promissory notes issued by Medical Capital Holdings Inc., which entered receivership in 2009. The sum included $250,000 in punitive damages. The case, decided on Dec. 31, was the first among dozens of arbitration cases […]
November 24, 2010
Not so fast, J.R. Larry Hagman, who played the rapacious oil tycoon J.R. Ewing in the 1980s hit TV series “Dallas,” recently won $11.6 million in a securities arbitration case against Citigroup. As DealBook reported last month, it was the largest arbitration award an individual investor received this year and the ninth largest award ever, […]