Tim O'Connor's Blog

The SEC has announced in its Investing Basics series, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced Operation Invest Wisely to promote investing education and resources for military service members and their families. Too often, military service members and their families have fallen prey to unscrupulous financial planners suggesting that military members and their family […]

In a Press Release dated Tuesday, July 19, 2016, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced a finding against Prudential Annuities Distributors, Inc. for failing to detect forged variable annuity withdrawal requests from a Prudential Annuities variable annuity customer. Various of these withdrawals included third party payee transfers which FINRA determined should have detected as […]

The SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced an assessment of a $5,000,000 fine against Merrill Lynch for misleading information relating to its strategic return notes. Merrill Lynch sold over $168,000,000 worth of these notes to customers, which were promoted as a hedge against declines in the financial markets. FINRA determined that Merrill Lynch […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) maintains an archive of frequently asked questions regarding the application of FINRA Rule 2080 relating to the disclosure of customer dispute information. Additional procedures relating to expungement sought of the arbitration panel stage customer dispute proceedings are contained in Rules 12805 and 13805 of the FINRA Code of Arbitration […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) maintains the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) vehicle to facilitate the mandatory reporting of bond sales in the United States. This includes all bonds interfacing with transactions in the over-the-counter secondary market in eligible fixed income securities. All broker/dealers who are FINRA member firms are required to report […]