Practice

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Citigroup Global Markets to pay $54 million in compensatory and punitive damages to investors in its municipal arbitrage trust funds.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission said they will hold a two-day roundtable at the start of May to help set dates for implementing final rules governing the establishment of new markets for trading credit default and other types of swaps of financial risks.

The Global Transaction Services unit of Citigroup Tuesday rolled out OTC Derivatives Service, which consolidates and streamlines the confirmation, settlement, valuation, collateral management, and margin management involved after a trade is executed. The system handles both middle- and back-office functions.

And 57% plan to continue working, an Insured Retirement Institute survey finds.

Independent financial advisers blasted the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for its draft muni-adviser fiduciary duty rule, saying it targeted independent FAs while virtually exempting underwriters, some of which market themselves as advisers.

Following the extended failure wave and deficit in federal reserves, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sounded decidedly more hopeful Tuesday about its future.

Until the Investment Adviser Registration Depository is adapted to handle the influx of advisors converting to state registration, not much will get done.

The Port Jefferson, NY team previously had $1.8 million in annual production and $277 million in assets under management.

FINRA has fined UBS Financial Services $2.5 million and ordered to pay $8.25 million in restitution for conduct related to the sale of Lehman Brothers Holdings principal protection notes.The fine and restitution is tied to alleged misleading of investors that took place in the sale of the principal protection notes, or PPNs, prior to Lehman Brothers’ Sept. 2008 bankruptcy filing. The PPNs promised a minimum return equal to an investor’s investment, according to FINRA, and were structured as fixed-income security structured products including bonds and options.

Thirty-three percent of Boomers are worried they won’t have enough money saved for retirement, 34% do not know the age at which they will retire, and 57% plan to continue working, according to the findings of a survey by the Insured Retirement Institute.