Regulation

During the crisis of 2008, service providers faced an environment in which they saw their clients' assets decline sharply. After the dust settled, a new order was born with clients demanding more for less with increasing scrutiny as regulators ramped up their efforts.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation issued a new research report-Financial Fraud and Fraud Susceptibility in the United States-which reveals that over 80% of respondents have been solicited to participate in potentially fraudulent schemes, and over 40% of those surveyed cannot identify some classic red flags of fraud.

The CFP Board’s strategy of punishing some certificate holders over compensation disclosure issues in what critics charge is an arbitrary manner threatens the future of the CFP designation, according to one of the early leaders of the board who also chaired its disciplinary commission.

Executives at mutual fund companies, asset management companies and support providers rated client reporting--which included any reporting that is created for the purpose of distribution to clients--as their top challenge followed closely by risk management in Money Management Executive's third annual Operations Survey.

Exclusive: Without any notice, ‘fee-only’ is replaced with ‘none provided’ on CFP holders’ profiles.

Bloomberg -- Technical malfunctions at stock exchanges around the world are putting their owners’ credit ratings in jeopardy, according to Standard & Poor’s.

Bloomberg -- Stock brokers who are lured to new firms with signing bonuses of at least $100,000 will be required to inform clients under a rule approved by FINRA.

FINRA is pressing ahead with a controversial new rule that would require brokers to make disclosures about recruitment compensation they receive as an enticement to jump to a new firm.

Brokerages from Morgan Stanley to Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch poach salesmen from one another, offering bonuses based on how much revenue they produce. Now brokers receiving bonuses of at least $100,000 will be required to inform clients.

Bloomberg -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., seeking to end probes of a trading debacle that damaged its reputation for risk-management, agreed to pay about $920 million for failing to implement adequate controls and providing incomplete information to regulators and its board.