Category Archives: FINRA News

On June 14, 2018,FINRA announced details of a multi-phased effort to overhaul its registration and disclosure programs, including the Central Registration Depository (CRD)—the central licensing and registration system that FINRA operates for the U.S. securities industry and its regulators and that provides the backbone of BrokerCheck. The first phase of the transformation—a new WebCRD interface that highlights important information or activities requiring immediate attention of firms, branches and individuals—goes into effect June 30.

The transformation aims to increase the utility and efficiency of the registration and disclosure process for firms, investors and regulators, as well as to reduce compliance costs for firms. FINRA’s Board of Governors has approved moving forward with the project, which FINRA expects to complete in 2021.

FINRA developed and operates several systems that support registration and disclosure requirements for the securities industry, and works closely with the SEC and NASAA on policy and program requirements for the systems. Securities firms use these systems to register and maintain the records of associated persons who operate within the securities industry, and investors use them—through BrokerCheck—to research the professional backgrounds of brokers and brokerage firms. These registration systems are essential to the operation of the securities industry, and experience consistently high usage volume.

The redeveloped registration systems will facilitate more efficient interaction for users and leverage information from other FINRA regulatory programs, resulting in a more accurate and complete set of information about registered individuals, branches and firms—enhancing firm compliance programs and reducing compliance costs. The transformation also allows FINRA to leverage the information security benefits of cloud-based technology, and architect systems that address dangers associated with current and anticipated cyber threats and risks.

The changes are being made in response to feedback FINRA has received through various channels during its ongoing organizational improvement initiative—FINRA360—including via recommendations from firms in response to FINRA’s 2017 Special Notice on Engagement. FINRA is working closely with member firms throughout the multi-year project, and will continue to solicit their input and feedback to ensure the enhanced systems are meeting the industry’s needs.

On June 4, 2018, Bradley E. Gardner accepted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which he acknowledged that he was barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity.   According to FINRA, on June 2, 2017, Gardner accepted a personal check in the amount of $7,400 from one of his elderly customers.  He allegedly told his client that she could pre-pay the fees associated with her advisory Firm accounts at a discount by writing a check payable to him, and that he would then “turn off” the fees associated with her accounts until March 2019.    He then deposited the check into his personal bank account and used the funds to pay for his personal expenses.  In the meantime, the firm continued to charge the client the fees associated with her advisory Firm accounts.  Mr. Gardner’s misconduct was discovered in September 2017, at which time Mr. Gardner reimbursed the whole amount to his client.

By converting customer funds, Garner violated FINRA rules.   Conversion is the intentional and unauthorized taking of an/or exercise of ownership over property by one who neither owns the property nor is entitled to possess it.

If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A. 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone: 954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.

On May 8, 2018, FINRA announced that it had fined Fifth Third Securities, Inc., $4 million and required the firm to pay approximately $2 million in restitution to customers for failing to appropriately consider and accurately describe the costs and benefits of variable annuity (VA) exchanges, and for recommending exchanges without a reasonable basis to believe the exchanges were suitable. This is the second significant FINRA enforcement action against Fifth Third involving the firm’s sale of variable annuities.

Variable annuities are complex investments commonly marketed and sold to retirees or people saving for retirement. Exchanging one VA with another involves a comparison of the complex features of each security. Accordingly, VA exchanges are subject to regulatory requirements to ensure that brokers have a reasonable basis to recommend them, and their supervisors have a reasonable basis to approve the sales.

FINRA found that Fifth Third failed to ensure that its registered representatives obtained and assessed accurate information concerning the recommended VA exchanges. It also found that the firm’s registered representatives and principals were not adequately trained on how to conduct a comparative analysis of the material features of the VAs. As a result, the firm misstated the costs and benefits of exchanges, making the exchange appear more beneficial to the customer. By reviewing a sample of VA exchanges that the firm approved from 2013 through 2015, FINRA found that Fifth Third misstated or omitted at least one material fact relating to the costs or benefits of the VA exchange in approximately 77 percent of the samples.  For example:

• Fifth Third overstated the total fees of the existing VA or misstated fees associated with various additional optional benefits, known as riders.
• Fifth Third failed to disclose that the existing VA had an accrued living benefit value, or understated the living benefit value, which the customer would forfeit upon executing the proposed exchange.
• Fifth Third represented that a proposed VA had a living benefit rider even though the proposed VA did not, in fact, include a living benefit rider.

FINRA found that the firm’s principals ultimately approved approximately 92 percent of VA exchange applications submitted to them for review. However, in light of the firm’s supervisory deficiencies, the firm did not have a reasonable basis to recommend and approve many of these transactions.

In addition, FINRA found that Fifth Third failed to comply with the terms of its 2009 settlement with FINRA. In the 2009 action, FINRA found that, from 2004 to 2006, Fifth Third effected 250 unsuitable VA exchanges and transactions and had inadequate systems and procedures governing its VA exchange business. For more than four years following the settlement, the firm failed to fully implement an independent consultant’s recommendation that it develop certain surveillance procedures to monitor VA exchanges by individual registered representatives.

In settling this matter, Fifth Third neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings. If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of Fifth Third Securities Inc.’s misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A., 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone:  954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.

On April 11, 2018, FINRA issued a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. (Cambridge) was censured and fined $150,000.  Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish, maintain and enforce a supervisory system and written supervisory procedures designed to supervise representatives’ sales of leveraged, inverse-leveraged exchange-traded funds (Non-Traditional ETF’s) and the redemption of variable annuities.

During the relevant period, January 2014 to March 2016, Cambridge’s customers, redeemed variable annuities and transferred the proceeds to an advisory account, on about 100 occasions.  It was found that the firm’s associated persons were involved with and recommended some of those transactions.    Additionally, from June 2012 to June 2015, eighty-four Cambridge registered representatives traded 4,773 transactions involving Non-Traditional ETFs in retail customers accounts, totaling about $127 million.  Cambridge failed to enforce its procedures and adequately monitor its representatives.

If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A. 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone: 954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.

In court papers filed February 23, 2018, the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth alleged Scottrade violated Massachusetts’ securities laws by failing to comply with the impartial conduct standards of the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule.

According to the complaint, the discount broker-dealer knowingly violated the fiduciary rule by running sales contests targeting retail investors’ assets in qualified retirement accounts. The contests also violated the internal compliance policies the company put in place after the impartial conduct standard went into affect in June of 2017, the complaint says.

Broker-dealer Scottrade has been charged with violating the impartial conduct standards of the DOL fiduciary rule. Under the fiduciary rule’s impartial conduct standards, any recommendation to buy a security with assets in IRAs or 401(k) plans must be made in investors’ best interests.

Scottrade ran two sales contests; one launched days before implementation of the impartial conduct standards, and one launched in September of 2017. Those contests, which were common in what the claim says was Scottrade’s “aggressive sales practices” prior to the implementation of the impartial conduct standards, incentivized brokers to bring in new assets from customers, including through rollovers from qualified retirement accounts.

In the first contest, Scottrade offered $285,000 in cash prizes to brokers that satisfied high cold-calling penetration benchmarks. In the second, brokers were awarded weekly cash prizes of $500 and $2,500 for recommending investors move to the firm’s advisory program.

Under the fiduciary standard established by the impartial conduct standards, any compensation arrangement that creates a potential conflict of interest must be disclosed to investors. Massachusetts’ complaint says Scottrade failed to inform clients of the conflicts arising from the incentives in the sales contests.

On February 5, 2018, two FINRA rule rules took effect that purport to address the financial exploitation of seniors and vulnerable adults, putting in place a uniform, national standard to protect senior investors. Firms are now required to make reasonable efforts to obtain the name of, and contact information for, a trusted contact person for a customer’s account. In addition, the rule permits FINRA member firms to place a temporary hold on a disbursement of funds or securities when there is a reasonable belief of financial exploitation, and to notify the trusted contact of the temporary hold.

The trusted contact person is intended to be a resource for firms in handling customer accounts, protecting assets and responding to possible financial exploitation of vulnerable investors. The new rule allowing firms to place a temporary hold provides them and their associated persons with a safe harbor from certain FINRA rules. This provision will allow firms to investigate the matter and reach out to the customer, the trusted contact and, as appropriate, law enforcement or adult protective services, before disbursing funds when there is a reasonable belief of financial exploitation. It is a critical measure because of the difficulty investors face in trying to recover funds that they have inadvertently sent to fraudsters and scam artists.

The rule changes were approved by the SEC in February 2017. FINRA set February 5, 2018 as the effective date to provide member firms substantial time to prepare and develop policies and procedures.

On December 27, 2017, FINRA announced that it fined J.P. Morgan Securities $2.8 million for violating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Customer Protection Rule and for related supervisory failures. The SEC rule creates requirements to protect customers’ funds and securities.

To ensure that customers could recover their assets in the event of the broker-dealer’s insolvency, the Customer Protection Rule requires a broker-dealer, which maintains custody of customer securities, to obtain and maintain physical possession or control over certain of those securities. These securities must be segregated in a “control location” and be free of liens or any other encumbrance that could prevent customers from taking possession of their securities. A firm cannot use segregated securities for its own purposes.

FINRA found that from March 2008 to June 2016, J.P. Morgan Clearing Corp. did not have reasonable processes in place to ensure that its possession or control systems were operating properly. Shares that should have been segregated were available for the firm’s use, due to systemic coding and design flaws, recurring and unresolved deficits and unreasonable supervision. By failing to move and maintain securities in good control locations, the firm created deficits in foreign and domestic securities valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. For example, J.P. Morgan failed to move Italian securities to a good control location for nearly two years, and on one sample day, created a deficit in 81 Italian securities worth approximately $146 million.

In determining the appropriate monetary sanction, FINRA considered J.P. Morgan’s cooperation in undertaking a plan to address the violations and that it over-reserved cash deposits in an effort to protect customers from its failed segregation of securities. In settling this matter, J.P. Morgan neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.

On December 20, 2017, a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent was issued in which FSC Securities Coporation was censured, fined $100,000, and required to provide FINRA with a plan to remediate eligible customers who qualified for, but did not receive, the applicable mutual fund sales-charge waiver. As part of this settlement, the firm agreed to pay restitution to eligible customers, which is estimated to total $414,261 (the amount eligible customers were overcharged, inclusive of interest). Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it disadvantaged certain retirement plan and charitable organization customers that were eligible to purchase Class A shares in certain mutual funds without a front-end sales charge. The findings stated that these eligible customers were instead sold Class A shares with a front-end sales charge, or Class B or C shares with back-end sales charges and higher ongoing fees and expenses. These sales disadvantaged eligible customers by causing the customers to pay higher fees than they were actually required to pay.

The findings also stated that the firm failed to reasonably supervise the application of sales-charge waivers to eligible mutual fund sales. The firm relied on its financial advisors to determine the applicability of sales-charge waivers, but failed to maintain adequate written policies or procedures to assist financial advisors in making this determination. In addition, the firm failed to adequately notify and train its financial advisors regarding the availability of mutual fund sales-charge waivers for eligible customers. The firm also failed to adopt adequate controls to detect instances in which they did not provide sales-charge waivers to eligible customers in connection with their mutual fund purchases. As a result of the firm’s failure to apply available sales-charge waivers, the firm estimates that eligible customers were overcharged by approximately $380,520 for mutual fund purchases made since January 1, 2011. If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of FSC Securities Corporation’s misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A., 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone:  954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.

On December 6, 2017, a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent was issued in which Next Financial Group, Inc. was censured, fined $750,000, and required to retain an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of the adequacy of its policies, systems and procedures (written and otherwise) and training. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish, maintain, and implement a supervisory system reasonably designed to detect and address excessively traded accounts. The findings stated that the supervisory failings resulted from an inadequate corrective action taken by the firm in response to prior FINRA disciplinary actions that included a failure to use exception reports or any other reasonably designed system to detect excessive trading. In addition, the firm failed to identify excessive trading due to lack of clarity regarding supervisory responsibilities. Due to flaws in its supervisory system, the firm did not reasonably supervise a registered representative’s excessive trading activity. If the firm had instituted reasonably designed procedures to ensure branch audits were completed and findings of excessive trading acted upon, it could have prevented this activity.

The findings also stated that the firm failed to implement a supervisory system and procedures reasonably designed to ensure appropriate suitability determinations in its variable annuity sales, including L-share contracts. The firm failed to establish, maintain and enforce systematic surveillance procedures to identify possible inappropriate rates of variable annuity exchanges. The firm also failed to enforce its existing procedures relating to the suitability review of variable annuity transactions. In addition, the firm did not establish, maintain, and enforce a reasonably designed supervisory system and WSPs related to the sale of multi-share class variable annuities. The firm’s WSPs failed to provide representatives and principals with guidance or suitability considerations for sales of different variable annuity share classes. Moreover, the firm failed to establish, maintain, and enforce WSPs or provide sufficient guidance to its representatives and principals on the sale of long-term income riders, such as long-term income riders with L-share contracts. The findings also included that the firm lacked a supervisory system reasonably designed to ensure that information included on consolidated reports provided to customers was accurate. The firm’s supervisory system was inadequate and it failed to enforce its own procedures.

FINRA also found that the firm failed to have supervisory procedures reasonably designed to detect and monitor for misleading communications on its website. As a result, the firm omitted material facts from its website that caused its communications with the public to be misleading. FINRA also found that the firm failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a system and WSPs reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA rule 2310(c) related to maintaining records of all non-cash compensation received by it or its associated persons. As a result, the firm failed to track and verify non-cash compensation received by its representatives that came in the form of direct sponsorship payments by product issuers to vendors/merchants. Emails of representatives reflected multiple occurrences of product issuers paying vendors/merchants for branch client events directly without the firm’s knowledge and approval of the non-cash compensation. If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of Next Financial Group’s misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A., 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone:  954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.

On December 4, 2017, an Office of Hearing Officers decision became final in which Legend Securities, Inc.  was censured and fined $200,000.  The sanctions were based on findings that it failed to supervise one of his registered representatives who engaged in a manipulative, deceptive and fraudulent scheme in which he churned the accounts of an elderly and blind customer.

The investigation revealed that between October 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015, the firm’s agent, Hank Werner, churned and excessively traded each of the three of the elderly client’s accounts, charging more than $243,000 in commission and fees.  According to the complaint, the Firm identified the representative as an individual who should be subject to heightened supervision, however, it failed to act at any time during the investigation period.  Additionally, the firm failed to reasonably supervise the Mr. Werner, which allowed him to engage in unsuitable trading and churning in the customer’s accounts causing the client’s losses of nearly $184,000.  The firm failed to enforce its procedures and adequately monitor its representatives.

If you believe that you have suffered losses as a result of misconduct, you may contact David A. Weintraub, P.A. 7805 SW 6^th Court, Plantation, FL 33324.  By phone: 954.693.7577 or 800.718.1422.