Regulatory actions and programs

Wall Street whistleblowers just got another reason to take their gripes directly to the SEC.

The regulator's proposal is set to remake compliance standards for brokers and advisors.

By requiring brokers to look out for clients’ best interests, the SEC is effectively requiring them to give financial advice, which distinguishes them from online brokers and should let them keep charging clients premium fees.

How often should CCOs pay a visit to branch offices?

An unregistered advisor with little investing experience raised $1.4 million from family and friends and then squandered the money on bad investments, federal prosecutors say.

The defrauded clients included the advisor’s own in-laws, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s and a debilitating stroke.

If it's not uniform, and it's not a fiduciary standard, then it is at best a modest step forward, investor advocates say.

It appears the regulator bought into the investor choice argument of sales reps right from the beginning.

New rules recognize the fact that commission-based transaction services can be the most cost effective way for Main Street investors to receive financial advice.

New rules would set standards of conduct for brokers, require new disclosures and offer interpretive guidance for fiduciary advisors.

The commission's approach stands a good chance of superseding the Labor Department's fiduciary rule.

Timothy Scheve will complete the term of John Thiel, the former head of Merrill Lynch, who left FINRA's board earlier this year.

The commission's new risk alert focuses on fees and expenses and amplifies its focus on disclosures and compensation structures.

The firm warned Friday that it may take a charge of as much as $1 billion to settle a U.S. probe of its consumer business.

One couple in their eighties invested more than $700,000 with the alleged schemers, representing almost the entirety of their cashed-out pension, regulators say.

When your client is a foreign national, it pays to find out if the same regulations apply.

Merrill Robertson Jr. had previously been sentenced to 40 years in prison in a separate criminal case.

Many of the trades should have triggered market manipulation concerns because they involved companies that were barely operating but engaging heavily in promotional activity, the SEC says.

Advisors who should self-report a violation — but don’t — could face enforcement actions.

The regional BD failed to properly document its own investigations in the matter, and couldn't answer some SEC questions about who knew what and when, the regulator says.