4/26/2010
Among the hundreds of firms that have stamped their John Hancock onto the six-year old broker protocol are an increasing number of RIAs. The trend of breakaway brokers (IA Watch, March 22, 2010), along with the protocol's raison d'être - set rules for taking clients and avoiding litigation - explain ...
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4/5/2010
The fate of former vFinance COO/CCO Richard Campanella rests in the hands of the Commission after an appeal last week of an administrative law judge's decision to fine and censure the executive for how he responded to an SEC records request. The case offers lessons for other compliance professionals ...
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12/29/2006
An understaffed compliance department can be a recipe for trouble and cost your firm in the long run. This expensive lesson was ultimately learned by a "grossly understaffed" Minneapolis-based broker-dealer fined by NASD for widespread deficiencies in its supervisory system.USAllianz Securities, Inc ...
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12/29/2006
Broker-dealers now a have greater level of flexibility when it comes to satisfying the annual compliance meeting requirement. NASD members can now use on-demand technology to satisfy the requirement, the regulator recently stated in an interpretive letteraddressed to Citigroup Global Capital Market ...
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12/15/2006
Supervisors at broker-dealer firms bear a heavy load. You must ensure your firm's registered representatives comply with applicable regulations while safeguarding your firm's profitability and reputation. You also must ensure that reps follow the firm's internal policies and procedures and design st ...
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11/22/2006
It's a sure bet that broker-dealers want examiners to finish their work as soon as possible, but NASD examiners say they also want to spend a minimal amount of time at a firm.There are several ways to expedite an examiner's visit, from labeling documents clearly so examiners know what they are looki ...
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10/24/2006
If you're going to have written supervisory procedures, follow them.That's the lesson that CCO Investment Services Corp. learned after agreeing to pay a $850,000 fine for having an inadequate supervisory system. The broker-dealer firm is a subsidiary of Citizens Bank of Rhode Island.NASD examiners f ...
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07/24/2006
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06/16/2006
What's the best way to inspect branch office operations and produce documents for those audits? NASD regulators and compliance professionals disagreed on that during a panel discussion during a recent industry meeting, but there was no argument about whether compliance should be involved. That's sim ...
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06/09/2006
If you find yourself concerned these days with branch office supervision, fee-based accounts and variable annuities, you're not alone. Those topics were top of mind among broker-dealers during a question-and-answer session with NASD executives at the group's recent spring conference.Branch office ov ...
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