Tag: FINRA

Consolidate Audit Trail – Timeliness of Reporting

Finance Magnates, 2 March 2017

While US broker dealers anticipate the initiation of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), many aspects of this regulation remains a topic of conversation for the industry.

One area of particular interest is the subject of timeliness for reporting. ‘Timeliness’ has been defined as “when the data is available to regulators and how long it would take to process before it could be used for regulatory analysis.” So how does one determine whether the current CAT NMS Plans will allow for timeliness of reporting, and what opportunities are there for technology to help support this objective?

10/18/201605/18/2020

Article: FINRA fines Merrill Lynch $2.8 million for reporting violations

FINRA fines Merrill Lynch $2.8 million for reporting violations

Elizabeth Dilts

Reuters, 18 October 2016

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch $2.8 million on Tuesday for what it called systemic violations in record-keeping and how the firm reported trades and order audit trail system data.

The allegations involve trade and order audit data that brokerages submit to FINRA, and which the regulator uses to detect, among other things, possible market manipulation.

09/28/201604/30/2020

Article: David Dayen Series on Naked Short Selling

David Dayen, a persistent chronicler of how oligarchs exploit the financial system to enrich themselves at the expense of others, writes about Chris DiIorio, a stock analyst who for 10 years has obsessively investigated how exactly he came to lose $1 million on one penny stock. A remarkable story ensues. All article in The Intercept.

The Money is Gone (22 September 2016)

Big Players, Little Stocks, and Naked Shorts (23 September 2016)

Naked Shorts Can’t Stay Naked Forever (24 September 2016)

Calling the SEC (25 September 2016)

Turning Up Like A Bad Penny (26 September 2016)

Were Paper Losses the Goal All Along (27 September 2016)

The Half Billion Glitch (28 September 2016)

06/23/201605/08/2020

Filing: SEC v Merrill Lynch

Filing

SEC v Merrill Lynch

23 June 2016

Broker-dealers are required to be diligent stewards of the cash and securities entrusted to them by their customers. This basic principle is embodied in Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3, known as the Customer Protection Rule (“Rule”). The Rule requires broker-dealers to safeguard both the cash and securities of their customers so that customer assets can be quickly returned if the firm fails. In broad strokes, a broker-dealer cannot use customer assets to finance the business activities of the firm, and it cannot place customer assets in locations or accounts that make them vulnerable to claims made against the broker-dealer by third parties.

PDF (23 pages): SEC v Merrill Lynch

06/13/201605/18/2020

Article: FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $80,000 for Supervisory Failures, Deletion of 21k OTC Options Positions

FINRA Fines Morgan Stanley $80,000 for Supervisory Failures, Deletion of 21k OTC Options Positions

Michael Edmiston

Stock Law, 13 June 2016

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC received a censure and $80,000 fine after a FINRA investigation determined the firm improperly deleted 21,374 over-the-counter (OTC) options positions required to be reported to the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)’s LOPR system, thereby rendering the LOPR data inaccurate.

FINRA wrote that, “The accuracy of LOPR data is essential for the analysis of various potential violations, including insider trading, position limits, exercise limits, front-running, capping and pegging, mini-manipulation, and marking-the-close.” The identification process assists regulators in identifying potential market manipulation by users who hold large options positions, such that deleting such information may adversely affect the industry’s ability to detect such violations.

11/19/201505/18/2020

Article: Finra Fines Deutsche Bank Securities Unit $1.4 Million

Finra Fines Deutsche Bank Securities Unit $1.4 Million

Ezequiel Manaya

Wall Street Journal, 19 November 2015

Wall Street’s watchdog group said Thursday that it fined Deutsche Bank AG’s securities unit $1.4 million for violating its short interest reporting rule.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, said Deutsche Bank had in some cases for more than a decade improperly tracked the number of shares it had borrowed, or padded the total number of securities it held of certain stocks.

05/13/201505/08/2020

Filing: FINRA v Morgan Stanley

Filing

FINRA v Morgan Stanley

13 May 2015

Based on the foregoing reviews, the staff determined that the firm violated FINRA Rule 4560, NASD Rule 3360, NYSE Rule 421, FINRA Rule 2010, NASD Rule 2110, NASD Rule 3010, and SEC Rule 200(1). Specifically, the staff determined the firm failed to submit accurate short interest reports during certain short interest reporting periods and failed to provide a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with short interest reporting requirements.

PDF (10 pages): FINRA v Morgan Stanley

01/02/201505/18/2020

Article: Merrill Lynch Fined $7.2M Over Options Reporting Flubs

Merrill Lynch Fined $7.2M Over Options Reporting Flubs

Law360, 2 January 2015

Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. will pay $5.8 million in fines, while Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle the joint enforcement action by FINRA, BOX Options Exchange LLC and Nasdaq’s options markets in Philadelphia and Boston, according to a settlement document dated Dec. 22, 2014.

10/28/201403/13/2021

Article: FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling

FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling

Victor Golovtchenk, 28 October 2014

According to an announcement by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), U.S. bank Merrill Lynch’s Professional Clearing Corp. (Merrill Lynch PRO) got fined $3.5 million for violating Regulation SHO. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented this rule in 2005 to prevent the conducting of a practice called naked short selling.

Merrill Lynch’s affiliated broker-dealer Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Merrill Lynch) has also been fined $2.5 million for failing to establish, maintain and enforce supervisory systems and procedures related to Regulation SHO and other areas, according to the FINRA announcement. Continue reading “Article: FINRA Fines Merrill Lynch $6 Mln for Failing to Prevent Naked Short Selling”

10/27/201405/08/2020

Filing: FINRA v Merrill Lynch

Filing

FINRA v Merrill Lynch

27 October 2014

Between approximately July 1, 2008 through July 2012, MLPRO failed to establish, maintain and enforce adequate supervisory systems and procedures, including in some instances written supervisory procedures, that were reasonably designed to ensure compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations including Regulation SHO, the 2008 Emergency Orders issued by the SEC and anti-money laundering requirements.

PDF (20 pages): FINRA v Merrill Lynch

05/01/201305/13/2021

Article: UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares

UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares

MARK MITCHELL, 01 May 2013

It wasn’t long ago when they were saying that naked short selling never happened. They said it simply did not exist, that only wild-eyed conspiracy theorists believed in naked short selling. That was before 2008, when the CEOs of some big banks started hollering that naked short selling was causing the stock prices of their banks to nosedive. With the CEOs of the big banks hollering, the SEC, in June, 2008, issued an Emergency Order banning naked short selling (that previously did not exist) in the stocks of 19 big financial institutions (i.e. the financial institutions that were doing the naked short selling—to each other). But the SEC did nothing about the naked short selling of other stocks because, apparently, that naked short selling existed only in the fevered imaginations of people who believed that their savings were being wiped out by little green men. Continue reading “Article: UBS, in Theory, a Conspiracy to Naked Short “Tens of Millions” of Shares”

02/25/201303/13/2021

Article: UBS, FINRA, and Naked Short Selling: “Duration, Scope and Volume of The Trading Created a Potential for Harm to The Integrity of The Market.”

UBS, FINRA, and Naked Short Selling: “Duration, Scope and Volume of The Trading Created a Potential for Harm to The Integrity of The Market.”

Larry Doyle, 25 February 2013

Last summer I tagged Wall Street’s industry funded police at FINRA as being little more than meter maids. With a recent review of FINRA’s largest fine imposed in its history, I now realize that I have actually done a serious disservice to those diligent and hard working meter maids patrolling our cities and towns. How so?

Let’s navigate and look more deeply into FINRA’s $12 million fine imposed on those paragons of virtue who ran Union Bank of Switzerland’s equity operations.

What did UBS do to deserve FINRA’s “largest” fine? Continue reading “Article: UBS, FINRA, and Naked Short Selling: “Duration, Scope and Volume of The Trading Created a Potential for Harm to The Integrity of The Market.””

12/28/201103/13/2021

Article: Credit Suisse Fined $1.75M for Short-Selling System Failures