Compliance

The combination of extortion and the use of threats to air an alleged extramarital affair against a state official is probably not the best way to win an investment contract at the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Tuesday it suspended indefinitely Pinnacle Partners Financial Corp., of San Antonio, Texas, and its president, Brian K. Alfaro, for failing to comply with a FINRA temporary cease and desist order “prohibiting their fraudulent misrepresentations.”The suspension resulted from FINRA’s notice of suspension that alleged that Pinnacle and Alfaro continued to make fraudulent oral and written misrepresentations and omissions in connection with their offer and sale of certain oil and gas joint interests. The temporary order was issued on Jan. 21.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Tuesday it suspended indefinitely Pinnacle Partners Financial Corp., of San Antonio, Texas, and its president, Brian K. Alfaro, for failing to comply with a FINRA temporary cease and desist order “prohibiting their fraudulent misrepresentations.”

The FDIC engaged in an activity that paints an alternate history detailing how it might have handled the collapse of Lehman Bros. if its new reform powers had been in place.

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 Securities and Exchange Commission on May 10 plans to hold a roundtable discussion on how to guard against systemic risk involving money market funds, the investment industry's $2.8 trillion alternative to checking accounts.

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds its roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds a roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

Bankers are divided over a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to train bank employees on insurance limits and require tellers to question depositors about their accounts.

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds a roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

A House oversight committee hearing slated to examine state and municipal debt Thursday devolved into an extended debate about collective bargaining, featuring two sitting governors from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

FINRA fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million, ordered the investment bank to repay $425,000 in ill-gotten commissions and fees and suspended a pair of its brokers for failing to disclose additional compensation to institutional clients and other conflicts of interest related to shady sales of auction rate securities between August 2007 and March 2008.

President Obama announced the framework of a plan Wednesday to shrink the deficit $4 trillion over 12 years, and urged House and Senate leaders to appoint teams to negotiate a final bipartisan plan by the end of June.

Success of the Office of Financial Research is critical to curbing TBTF, and if it flops, the next set of solutions may be much harsher than living wills and orderly liquidation authority.

They love him. They loathe him. The Great Recession is over. There's still no sign of the recession's end. Things are only getting better. Things couldn't get worse. That basically sums up the mixed sentiment of most of the financial advisors polled earlier this year by investment management firm Brinker Capital to get a sense of how they feel President Obama and his administration navigated and managed -- or not -- the U.S. economy and government fiscal policy last year and what to expect in 2011.

Wells had sought $36 million from Stifel Nicolaus for the case of improper recruiting.

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.

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.