Law and regulation

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Merrill Lynch $500,000 for failing to file or promptly file certain required disclosures that the independent regulator argues resulted in hidden investment risks and possible harm to investors.

No, not that Bush.

While legal experts still question the suit now taken up by Michigan, Oklahoma and South Carolina, their participation helps to build momentum in the legal fight over Dodd-Frank.

Mutual fund shareholders are paying their managers less today in fees than they were 20 years ago or even last year.

INDIANAPOLIS-The husband and wife team had lots of experience. They had worked at large mutual fund shops, then struck out on their own.

The $1.7 billion Strategic Advisers Emerging Markets Fund has hired Acadian Asset Management as a new sub-adviser to the fund alongside Pyramis Global Advisors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

CEO John Stumpf offered candid views on monetary policy, the housing crisis, capital rules and even consumer protection during a panel discussion late Wednesday.

For those in the business of providing investment advice, the situation in the nation's capital is getting serious. With Washington gridlocked and steeped in uncertainty over a series of tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, members of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee met for a joint session to consider a critical and contentious facet of the tax code: capital gains.

Tim Pawlenty, the former Republican governor of Minnesota who criticized Wall Street while running for president last year, is joining the Financial Services Roundtable as president and chief executive officer.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $137,500 in fines for violations of trade reporting and other municipal securities rules.

The agency is targeting Summit Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor, and Angelo Alleca, who is charged with defrauding investors in what the SEC describes as a scheme that sought to conceal losses from trades that went bad through the creation of new private funds that were used to repay the original investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged a Chicago-based investment advisory firm with misleading investors in connection with a pair of private-equity offerings.

The Alternative Strategies Mutual Fund, a series of Northern Lights Fund Trust II, has bid farewell to a quartet of subadvisors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

William Steward, a former accountant in product control for UBS AG, said he began looking into trades by Kweku Adoboli in August 2011 after receiving a report of a $3.57 billion discrepancy.

The New York investment bank has filed a request with FINRA to withdraw from the brokerage business, after being fined for breaking 'information barriers.' Its parent company said it will still try to commercialize its DIrect Markets technology.

A Florida federal court rejected Merrill Lynch's petition to vacate an arbitration decision on Monday, clearing the way for two financial advisors to receive a $10.25 million awarded to them in April.

The Board of Directors of the Valley Forge Fund last month terminated the fund’s investment advisory agreement with Valley Forge Management Corporation, effective as of October 31.

The FDIC is trying to help bankers prep for exams and more clearly understand the results as part of a broader effort at improving relations, Martin Gruenberg, the agency's acting Chairman, said.

Like beauty, "risk" is often in the eye of the beholder. What might seem "risky" to one person (such as traveling to an exotic destination) might be an exciting adventure for someone else.

A group of family trusts has lost a $7.56 million arbitration claim that highlights the difficulties of winning individual claims tied to various Morgan Keegan funds that have fallen under regulatory scrutiny.