Article: FINRA Merrill’s system failures produced millions of inaccurate trading records

Article - Media

FINRA: Merrill’s system failures produced millions of inaccurate trading records

Kenneth Corbin

OnWallStreet, 19 October 2016

Staffers at FINRA’s Department of Market Regulation identified a number of reporting errors in the data Merrill submitted to FINRA’s Order Audit Trail System, or OATS, and cited the firm for failures relating to its supervision practices and its maintenance of books and records.

In a statement announcing the settlement, Thomas Gira, executive vice president and head of market regulation at FINRA, notes the importance of maintaining accurate data through the OATS market-surveillance program to detect signs of market manipulation and other irregularities.

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Article: Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says

Article - Media, Publications

Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says

Karen Gullo, 16 May 2012

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. employees discussed helping naked short-sales by market-maker clients in e-mails the banks sought to keep secret, including one in which a Merrill official told another to ignore compliance rules, Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK) said in a court filing.

The online retailer accused Merrill, now part of Bank of America Corp., and Goldman Sachs of manipulating its stock from 2005 to 2007, causing its shares to fall. Clearing operations at the banks intentionally failed to locate and deliver borrowed shares for clients shorting stocks, including two traders who were fined and suspended from the industry, Overstock’s attorneys said in court filings earlier this year.

Lawyers for Overstock, whose California state court lawsuit inSan Francisco was dismissed in January, asked a judge to make public e-mails sent in 2005 and 2006 that it said “reflect business decisions to put profits and corporate ambition over compliance” at Goldman Sachs and Merrill. The banks’ decisions to intentionally fail to deliver Overstock shares caused large- scale naked short selling of the company’s stock, according to the filing. Continue reading “Article: Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says”

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