On Wednesday, January 10, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved the first U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin. The SEC approved 11 applications, including from BlackRock (BLK.N), Ark Investments/21Shares (ABTC.S), Fidelity, Invesco (IVZ.N) and VanEck. The approvals come a day after an unauthorized person published a fake post on the SEC’s…
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FINRA recently announced new sanctions filed against M1 Finance LLC, Open to the Public Investing, Inc., SoFi Securities LLC, and SogoTrade, Inc. for supervisory and advertising violations. The fines for these violations totaled $1.6 million. In addition to the substantial fine, FINRA also ordered the firms pay over $1 million in restitution. During its investigation,…
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The North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) and the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (“PIABA”) have announced their support for FINRA as it challenges Alpine Securities Corporation’s (“Alpine”) arguments that it is unconstitutional. NASAA, the membership organization for state regulators, filed an amicus brief with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals citing its support…
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Effective October 16, 2023, FINRA adopted amendments to its Codes of Arbitration Procedure (Codes) to modify the process relating to requests to expunge customer dispute information in the FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) arbitration forum. FINRA operates the Central Registration Depository (CRD), and customer dispute information maintained in CRD is reported through Forms U4 and…
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In an effort to delay FINRA’s expedited death sentence it imposed following its ruling that, Alpine Securities be expelled from the industry over allegations it misused customer funds and violated compliance rules, the broker dealer has taken direct action against FINRA and filed an injunction pending appeal. In its Emergency Motion for Injunction Pending Appeal,…
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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has barred a veteran financial advisor for providing falsified financial documents and making false statements during an investigation in violation of FINRA Rules 8210 and 2010. Timothy James Breslin, who owned and operated his own registered investment advisory firm, TJB Wealth Management (CRD # 325641), submitted a Letter of Acceptance,…
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FINRA has announced it has expelled Monmouth Capital Management for various violations, including churning, excessive trading, failure to supervise its representatives and providing false and misleading disclosures to retail customers on its client relationship summary (“Form CRS”). During its investigation, FINRA obtained evidence which reflected Monmouth, by way of approximately six (6) registered representatives, excessively…
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On June 12, 2023, FINRA published Regulatory Notice 23-11,[*1] soliciting comments on proposed Rule 4610 concerning liquidity risk management requirements. Rule 4610 would require covered members—those with the “largest customer and counterparty exposures”—to “have and maintain sufficient liquidity on a current basis” at all times. The purpose of Rule 4610 is to “ensure that members…
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On April 20, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (”SEC) released a staff bulletin regarding the standards of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisors. The bulletin is focused primarily on the Care Obligation of Regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”) for broker-dealers and the duty of care enforced under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the…
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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is ramping up enforcement against registered representatives who violate the Best Interest Obligation of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest (“Reg. BI”). In February 2023, FINRA announced that it had disciplined two New York-based registered representatives for violating Reg BI. Tony Cirella and Edward Scott Short, both of the Melville,…
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