Relationships between advisory firms and their regulators are built at the staff level, but it’s important the right staff do the communicating. Ken Woodard, director of communication and membership services at the MFDA, said he encourages firms to pick up the phone and ask for further information, or clarification, about rules, and insists that if […]
(August 2006) I’ve been to at least a half dozen industry conferences recently and there’s a good deal of chatter in the hallways about the second round of practice examinations being conducted by the Mutual Fund Dealers Association. And a lot of people are saying they don’t know what to expect from examiners, or what […]
(June 2006) Do you have the sneaking suspicion you’re doing something not quite right. Well, it might be more than a suspicion. “What did your latest audits find firms were doing wrong?” is the question we put Karen McGuinness, compliance chief at the Mutual Fund Dealers Association. Her response: “Everything.” All the problems the self-regulatory […]
Concerns over excessive regulation are driving initial public offering listings away from U.S. exchanges and onto overseas trading venues. And Canada deserves a piece of that action, according to members of the Crawford Panel which presented its final report on Wednesday, recommending the creation of a single securities regulator. Canada is currently the only major […]
(May 2006) You see a legitimate trading strategy. Your regulator sees an anomaly, and quite possibly wrongdoing. What’s your next step? If you believe the regulator has overlooked some key facts, or didn’t understand the facts it sifted through, then provide a Wells response outlining your version of events. (John Wells chaired an enforcement advisory […]
Lower taxes for businesses large and small that appeared in the Conservative government’s first budget will produce net positives for corporate bonds and spur investment, securities industry observers said. "It’s one of the few pro-business developments we’ve seen out of the budget in awhile," said Darcy Briggs, a portfolio manager and fixed income analyst at […]
Rich people have more to steal, and identity thieves are going after the cream of the crop. That means advisors must do a better job of protecting client information, because people with investment portfolios, quite simply, are the “target market.” Katherine Vessenes, a U.S.-based consultant who helps financial services firms improve their data security and […]
(February 2006) While it’s true the first line of defense for any compliance regime is the registered representative who interacts with the public, a web of compliance professionals still needs to provide backup. Case in point: the Investment Dealers Association’s recent action against David Yanor, an Edward Jones rep who was fined $30,000 and suspended […]
To a busy securities firm, June of 2008 is a long way away. But to that firm’s IT staff, it’s the blink of an eye. A request for proposals soliciting vendor bids for development of the Trade Reporting and Electronic Audit Trail Standards (TREATS) will go out soon, Investment Dealers Association vice president for sales […]
Three years on, the National Association of Securities Dealers continues to levy fines against firms for improper sales of Class B and C mutual fund shares. This week, the self-regulatory organization dinged Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Wells Fargo Investments and Linsco/Private Ledger Corporation $19.4 million for supervisory violations related to mutual fund sales. […]