So says a study conducted by Berkeley Law School professor, Stavros Gadinis.  The article appears in The Business Lawyer, published in the May 2012 issue  (Volume 67, Number 3)  by the American Bar Association. The study covers SEC enforcement actions against investment banks and brokerage houses during a period just before the 2007-2008 economic crisis (the dataset covers … Read more →

In a recent AdvisorOne article entitled “Resolved: FINRA Should Review These 10 Outdated Rules,” the authors address 10 FINRA rules they believe are outdated and often subject to confusion in their interpretations.  One can only hope that they’ve shared their thoughts with FINRA’s advisory and standing committees.  While FINRA’s rulemaking process is fairly open and transparent, affording industry and the public the opportunity … Read more →

That was one of  the pronouncements coming this week from SEC commissioners when the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a new rule  requiring national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to establish a market-wide consolidated audit trail.  The aim is to increase, significantly, regulators’ ability to monitor and analyze trading activity. While exchanges use their own separate audit trail system … Read more →

Last Tuesday, officials from the SEC and FINRA issued new warnings to the variable annuity marketplace. During a URI 2012 Government, Legal & Regulatory Conference last week, Susan Nash, Associate Director of the Division of Investment Management at the SEC explained that despite sales of variable annuities increasing approximately 12% in 2011 from 2010, some … Read more →