Compliance

A wealth manager has been hit with 14 customer disputes since entering the industry in 2005, FINRA records show.

The finance industry faces a steep, uphill battle in trying to convince the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the long-standing use of arbitration agreements is beneficial for consumers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's second arbitration study indicates the bureau's intent to regulate financial institutions' inclusion of clauses that prevent customers from suing.

Differences are to be expected, but the gaps were large enough to worry analysts. The big question now for JPM is whether the results could affect its comprehensive capital analysis and review due out later today.

Client behaviors, preferences and expectations have undergone some big changes. Old ways of engaging with prospects and clients fall flat in this new world. That's why reinventing their client engagement models - and the supporting business processes - must be a high priority for asset management and wealth advisory firms.

As federal regulators mull rules to extend anti-money laundering requirements to advisors, industry members might want to act on their own to set up formal programs to screen for suspicious activity.

The review is likely to start with broker-dealers and their platforms; It will coincide with a second, more targeted phase of the commission's cybersecurity sweep.

Community and regional banks should be subjected to simpler rules than very large banks, the chairman and CEO of the Buffalo, N.Y., company said. In fact, size is the wrong determinant for risk-based regulation, he said.

The SEC acknowledges that cybersecurity requirements vary from one practice to the next, but insists that the tone from the top is critical.

This week's items of note includes a Fed warning on potential misperceptions of liquidity with ETFs, a report on clients defecting at an unprecedented rate from Pimco's developing-nation mutual funds, a study showing underlying investment fees have declined at small retirement plans, and exchange operator BATS naming a new CEO.

"I live in fear, quite honestly, of FINRA assuming the responsibility of examining investment advisors," a former SEC attorney told advisors at the Investment Adviser Association regulatory and compliance conference.

The firm agreed to pay $225,000 for failing to adequately supervise its registered representatives, one of whom allegedly bilked elderly clients of over $300,000.

The IRS is continuing its enforcement push against refund fraud and identity theft, and today announced the top ten identity theft prosecutions for fiscal year 2014.

Neil Hennessy says he has managed to secure loyalty and productivity from every employee by providing creature comforts while also holding them to strict performance standards.

The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard is asking for input from the industry in its effort to help consumers distinguish between fiduciary advisors and "product sellers."

Firms and their advisors are paying increasing attention to the rising threat of cybercrime.

This year's examination guidance memos from the SEC and FINRA highlight the compliance issues that will be getting the most scrutiny. Have you been paying attention?

Did you read the most recent SEC funding memo to Congress? Bob Veres did -- and if he had the ear of Mary Jo White, here's what he'd say to her.

No matter how clean your paperwork is, a regulatory audit can still be nerve-racking. Here's how ours felt.

Here's how the industry's leading experts say you can protect your data and your practice.