Yet another example of “Fair Prices and Commissions Rule” violation…… FINRA has now ordered Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. to pay restitution of $1.69 million to more than 15,500 investors who were charged unfair and unreasonable commissions on securities transactions. FINRA also fined the two entities $225,000 and $200,000, … Read more →

FINRA will host a live one-hour webinar on October 12, 2011(1:30 PM (EST)/ 10:30 AM (PT) examining recent enforcement actions against broker-dealers and registered representatives. The program will provide an overview of new developments and trends. In addition, panelists will discuss improving broker-dealer compliance programs by applying lessons learned from enforcement actions. See more…

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) recently announced that it will waive the initial set-up and annual system fees paid by investment adviser firms (IAs) and investment representatives (IARs) to maintain the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD) system. Noting that state securities regulators were sensitive to the cost of compliance borne by investment advisers, … Read more →

Yesterday, in front of the House Financial Services Capital Markets SubCommittee, Richard Ketchum, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) testified that FINRA is prepared to assume the regulation of investment advisers. Ketchum noted that while the SEC oversees more than 11,000 investment advisers, but in 2010 conducted only 1,083 exams of those firms … Read more →