Practice

The 2008-2009 financial crisis that rocked worldwide markets was amplified by the lack of a sufficient regulatory framework, including checks on the largest broker-dealer firms, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday.

The Financial Services Institute has expanded its agenda to include retirement and tax issues. As part of the expansion, the independent broker-dealer advocacy group has hired Robert Lewis as government affairs counsel for tax and retirement.

On April 16, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former chief financial officer of optionsXpress and three other officials of the online options and futures brokerage of engaging in “an abusive naked short selling scheme’’ involving billions of dollars of sham trades.

Does a U.S. Supreme Court ruling based on the Anna Nicole Smith case prevent a bankruptcy court from resolving hundreds of lawsuits brought by the Madoff firm's trustee?

Rep. Spencer Bachus seen offering legislation that could lead to FINRA becoming the self-regulatory organization overseeing investment advisors.

MME reports on April 13, 2012: After a long, winding legal road, involving no fewer than six federal court decisions, Ameriprise Financial finally won a suit alleging that it had charged excessively high advisor fees.

On April 13, 2012, MassMutual's Retirement Services Division has added three new sales directors to its sales and client management organization: Dararith Ly; John Randall and Raymond Zittlow.

Lincoln Financial Advisors had abruptly terminated Jeffrey Concepcion in August 2008, according to the arbitration filing, and then withheld severance after he refused to agree to a non-competition agreement.

On the heels of major organizational changes, Northern Trust promotes two more executives in its wealth management business.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay a $22 million fine and accept other penalties to resolve charges from the SEC that the firm lacked adequate policies and procedures to address the risk that during weekly meetings, known as “huddles,” its analysts could share important non-public information about upcoming research changes.