Compliance

A Morgan Stanley broker and the managing clerk at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP were arrested today for an insider-trading scheme that authorities said netted $5.6 million in illicit profit.

U.S. Senators Carl Levin and John McCain urged the Justice Department to seek extradition of about 30 Swiss bankers and others who are charged with enabling offshore tax evasion and haven't appeared in federal courts.

The two regulators are organizing outreach programs to provide an opportunity for advisors to talk directly with regulators about risk management, regulatory issues and compliance practices.

Hedge-fund and mutual-fund firms will face scrutiny of their risk-management practices in a meeting today with the top U.S. derivatives regulator.

Mark Spangler, who used NAPFA affiliation to attract clients before losing most of their assets, was taken immediately into custody at his sentencing.

CFP Board makes new push into academia with plans for a center at its headquarters and an academic journal

Expected in August, the Labor Department's new draft of a fiduciary proposal for retirement-plan advisors involves taking a more "clear, direct and nuanced" approach to the education vs. advising question, says Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi.

Securities America and Triad, both divisions of Ladenburg Thalmann, slapped for "failing to supervise the use of consolidated reporting systems resulting in statements with inaccurate valuations being sent to customers."

Compliance experts are recommending that firms take a flexible, risk-based approach as they respond to the SEC's red flag rules, a new set of regulations for protecting clients against identity theft.

Advisors will be expected to keep records about the content they post on social sites just as they do with other materials on traditional channels, according to a senior commission attorney.

A former banker at a Credit Suisse Group unit facing a July 2011 indictment on a tax conspiracy charge is scheduled to plead guilty today in federal court in Virginia, according to court records.

The proposal would require advisors changing firms to disclose financial incentives of $100,000 or more in either upfront recruitment bonuses or deferred bonuses, according to FINRA documents.

SEC examiners frequently cite firms for insufficient disclosures, an SEC official says. Here are some of the most common conflicts that advisors fail to disclose adequately to their clients.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has joined other regulators in seeking to simplify megabanks' myriad legal entities. But instead of being focused on helping a bank to unwind in a failure, the OCC argues simplification can greatly help operational efficiency.

Cybersecurity is an area of growing SEC concern and examiners will increasingly be expecting RIAs of all sizes to have in place more robust policies and procedures to deal with the growing threats to their information systems.

The commission is committed to moving forward on a uniform fiduciary standard for advisors and broker-dealers and also expects to finalize money market reforms by the end of the year.

While acknowledging discrepancies between BrokerCheck and state reports, FINRA says it is right to exclude some information and that other "missing" information is in fact included.

In particular, the commission is looking for cases when advisors trade on behalf of clients without written disclosure and consent, or fail to process a trade on the most favorable terms for their clients, says an enforcement division co-chief.

Thousands of Credit Suisse Group’s U.S. clients still don’t know whether tax authorities will learn their identities as prosecutors work to conclude a three- year probe of how the bank helped them evade taxes.

OCC bank examiner says banks have given their programs too much latitude and need to reclaim a more active role in oversight.