November 2, 2012
Wall Street Journal
Caitlin Nish
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority explained Thursday how it will open its arbitration forum to registered investment advisers, a group it doesn’t have any enforcement power over–at least not yet. Wall Street’s self-regulator now oversees only brokers and not investment advisers, who are supervised directly by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Traditionally, its arbitration system […]
October 30, 2012
Wall Street Journal
Caitlin Nish
A U.S. district court has upheld an arbitration panel’s half-a-million dollar award against Merrill Lynch, capping a controversy in which the three arbitrators were fired after rendering their decision–and then re-hired. The federal court in Atlanta on Thursday tossed out Merrill’s argument that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel prejudged the case and showed […]
October 28, 2012
InvestmentNews
Bruce Kelly
David Lerner Associates Inc. isn’t out of the legal woods despite the stiff sanctions leveled against it last week from securities regulators over the firm’s sale of nontraded real estate investment trusts and municipal bonds. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. last Monday slammed the longtime purveyor of muni bonds and REITs for alleged unfair […]
October 23, 2012
Reuters
Suzanne Barlyn
A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a $9.2 million securities arbitration ruling against Morgan Keegan & Co stemming from a group of bond funds that became the subject of a civil fraud action by regulators. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that a district court’s decision to throw out the […]
October 7, 2012
InvestmentNews
Bruce Kelly
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff shook the securities establishment to its core in 2009 when he refused to sign off on a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp. The SEC had sued the bank for not disclosing an agreement to pay up to $5.8 billion in […]