Law and regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Paul A. Beswick as acting chief accountant in the Office of the Chief Accountant, succeeding James Kroeker, who left the SEC last Friday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $117,425 in fines and restitution to customers for violation of municipal securities trade, pricing and supervisory rules.

On eve of law's second anniversary, regulators face heavy scrutiny over how they will implement remaining Dodd-Frank rules. Many key regulations have yet to be seen.

There is a new sheriff in town for the mutual fund industry-and he may need to borrow money for bullets.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Morningstar decided to put its stamp of approval, and disapproval, on alternative mutual funds. And by all measures, it should.

There is a new sheriff in town for the mutual fund industry-and he may need to borrow money for bullets.

The Board of Trustees of the Newgate Global Resources Fund has decided to liquidate the fund, effective as of July 31, according to a Securities and Exchange filing.

The head of the Financial Services Institute has delivered a pointed letter to House committee leaders criticizing the efforts of the Department of Labor in developing a new definition of the term "fiduciary" that would cover financial professionals providing advice to retirement plans.

Fund managers and financial advisors are looking to the cloud to reduce costs, enhance performance, and improve accessibility, but many questions remain.

On a 3-2 vote, the federal regulator charged the nation's 13 exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to come up with a workable system for keeping track of all options and stock activity, before the start of the next trading day.

Five candidates will compete for three seats on FINRA’s board of governors.

The new suitability and Know-Your-Customer rules will present FINRA with the opportunity to bring a variety of enforcement actions against both firms and registered representatives. The types of cases will likely be similar to enforcement actions that FINRA has brought under the existing rules.

The new message focuses on a targeted approach to repealing certain provisions — rather than the whole law — and trying to convince everyday Americans they too will suffer the consequences of new rules for the financial industry.

A California Superior Court has denied an investor’s appeal of a March arbitration decision, including claims that one witness was unreasonably excluded and another witness was intimidated against testifying.

FINRA Rule 2090 will impose a new requirement on many firms, that of “knowing your customer.” Firms that have not previously been subject to a Know-Your-Customer requirement are determining what facts it deems essential in connection with servicing an account.

The industry veteran will be chief counsel and chief compliance and ethics officer in the in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.

On July 10, 2012, The 32-year wait for a comprehensive record-keeping system to monitor trading across U.S. equity and options markets is approaching conclusion.

As financial professionals grapple with a new regulatory mandate for the suitability of investment advice, a leading industry advocacy group is continuing its opposition to two key provisions of the new rules from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) that took effect Monday.

Global X Funds, the New York based provider of exchange traded funds, is changing the index, name, ticker, expense ratio and investment objective of the Global X S&P/TSX Venture 30 Canada ETF (Ticker: TSXV).

The time has finally arrived. FINRA’s new suitability and know-your-customer rules take effect today.