Information on the original cost basis of stocks purchased by investors can now be transferred automatically in roughly 97% of cases.

While a religious group was predicting the imminent Apocalypse last week, a set of financial services industry representatives were warning of the possible end to their own world.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel awarded $1.7 million to a Texas man and the estate of his deceased wife, after finding that a former independent contractor at Raymond James Financial Services improperly managed their portfolio using life insurance and variable annuities.

The firm should have been more on the ball, from a supervisory standpoint, the claimants’ attorney said.

Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) have proposed the Savings Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401(k) Savings Act (SEAL), which would limit the number of loans that participants can take from their 401(k) to no more than three at a time.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has proposed that broker-dealers disclose any revenue-splitting arrangements they have with mutual funds at the time they sell their shares to investors.

Among other things, the rules are expected to keep executives or employees of credit rating agencies from going to work for the companies whose credit they have rated, for at least one year. The proposals are also likely to block agencies from having a person who markets its products or services also participate in its ratings.

Top officials at the FHFA have watched with alarm as the level of the Federal Home Loan banks' investments has surged, sometimes surpassing the level of their advances.

As the government builds a new regime for writing consumer protection rules, an existing bank regulator has put a twist on enforcing them.

Advisory clients, attorneys and other members of the public previously had to contact the staff at Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to get copies of disciplinary actions for firms and registered representatives.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Kane, McKenna Capital Inc. and Wulff, Hansen & Co. a total of $27,500 for municipal transaction disclosure and trade rule violations.

The FDIC on Monday announced it hired Bret Edwards as the director of its division of resolutions and receiverships. Edwards has been acting director since January.

The new searchable system adds another layer of transparency into the brokerage and financial advisory industry, on a firm and individual level.

The federal budget deficit is estimated to skyrocket to $1.6 trillion this year, but Andrew H. Friedman of The Washington Update told a standing-room only crowd at IMCA’s annual conference in Las Vegas that there are still opportunities for investors.

Securities and Exchange Commission, money market fund, money fund

WASHINGTON-The U.S. debt, $9.5 trillion in 2010, could reach $25.9 trillion by 2021 if not kept in check. This was the warning of Erskine B. Bowles, former White House chief of staff, and Alan K. Simpson, former Senator from Wyoming, who are co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, speaking at the Investment Company Institute's General Membership Meeting here.

FINRA has hit Wells Fargo Advisors with $1 million in fines for delayed delivery of prospectuses to its mutual fund customers and required regulatory disclosure information about its representatives.

In a recent filing, State Street, the Boston, Mass.-based institutional investor services firm, revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other federal authorities have inquired about its past foreign exchange practices.

New rules targeting broker-dealers could mean new exams for certain management professionals and new standards for SEC inquiries.

A group of Democratic members of the House, led by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), has written to the Department of Labor criticizing a new rule that would redefine the term fiduciary in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.