BrokerDealers Battle Their Own Regulator: Sifma v. Finra Over Privacy

iStock_000010356316XSmallBrokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of The New York Times’ Susan Antilla.

Finra has proposed a new plan that requires brokerdealers to share extensive information about their clients’ accounts and brokerdealers are not happy about it.

The proposal by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, is “a troubling and serious threat to investors’ civil liberties and constitutional rights,” Carrie L. Chelko, chief counsel of the Philadelphia financial firm Lincoln Financial Network, wrote in one of hundreds of letters to the agency criticizing the plan.

Finra argues that regular, monthly reports from brokers detailing purchases, sales, margin calls and risk profiles will give it a chance to stop abusive practices before further harm is done.

Finra is considering the feedback on its plan, called the Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System, or Cards, and making changes in advance of seeking approval from its board of governors and forwarding a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Finra’s chief executive, Richard G. Ketchum, said in a telephone interview.

Finra has often been dismissed as an apologist for the Wall Street firms that finance it, but it has made some efforts since the financial crisis to play a tougher role. It fought the discount brokerage firm Charles Schwab & Company in 2012 after the firm tried to force customers to waive their rights to bring class-action lawsuits, winning its case last April. It also strengthened its standards for brokers who are making investment recommendations, advising them that a product must be consistent with a customer’s best interest. Several powerful investor advocacy groups, includingAARP and the Consumer Federation of America, have applauded Finra’s plan, noting that it would allow agency regulators to match the 21st-century data capabilities of the Wall Street firms it regulates. But the brokerage firms that pay Finra to be their regulator say that keeping so much investor information in one place is an example of regulatory overreach and an invasion of customers’ privacy.

“Not a week goes by without some data breach being reported in the press,” Ira D. Hammerman, general counsel of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a Wall Street lobbying group known as Sifma, said in an email response to questions about Finra’s plan. “And if Cards is built, the question is when, not if, there will be a data breach.”

In December, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to Finra to express its “very serious security and privacy concerns” about Cards.

Mr. Hammerman and other critics have said that Finra’s plan would invade investors’ privacy, put personal information at risk, take supervisory authority away from brokerage firms and put small brokers out of business. After Sony disclosed in December that its systems had been hacked, Mr. Hammerman even took the opportunity during a media interview to liken Sony’s predicament to the risks that Cards would pose.

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, said Wall Street was “using every tool in their toolbox.” She added, “Their reaction is so over the top that the only thing I can see is that they just don’t want their regulator to be able to keep an eye on them.”

Given Finra’s reputation among some critics, Ms. Roper said, the aggressive Cards proposal has taken some Wall Streeters by surprise. “The industry sees this as evidence of Finra becoming less of a lap dog,” she said.

Mr. Ketchum said that the proposal would make it possible for Finra to spot patterns that suggest bad behavior by a brokerage firm, a branch office or an individual broker.

Dishonest brokers do not usually take advantage of only one client, Mr. Ketchum said. Instead, “they fall in love with a product or they fall in love with a strategy and they put tons of people in it.” Thus, a comprehensive database that displays all of the activity at a firm or branch can help Finra zero in on abuse, he said.

Ms. Roper said the program would let Finra jump on problems more quickly. “It creates a real deterrent,” she said. “Who’s going to churn an account if it immediately sends off a warning siren at Finra?”

In objecting to Cards, the securities industry has been most vocal about the potential for a vast repository of investor information to be hacked. After perusing the data security objections raised in a first round of comment letters in early 2014, Finra revised its proposal and said that customers’ names, addresses and tax identification numbers would not be included.

To continue reading this article from the New York Times, click here.

Risk is Worth the Reward: Brokerdealers Still Have Faith in Russia

Brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ben Steverman.

download (7)For the past few years, only risk-taking brokerdealers have had the courage to invest their clients’ money into the Russian Market. Many brokerdealers have not been able to see what opportunity there was in Russia. Bloomberg’s Ben Steverman has been able to crack the code and found the opportunity.

On paper, there’s no good reason to invest in Russia right now. The country’s dealing with a collapsed currency, plunging oil prices, recession, conflict in Ukraine, sanctions, and a government that’s hard to predict. The MSCI Russia Index lost almost half its value last year, and those losses could continue in 2015 and even into 2016. On Monday, as fighting in Ukraine intensified, the ruble dropped another 2.3 percent against the dollar, to its lowest level since Dec. 16.

For the intrepid, the thrill-seeking, or the very wealthy, however, Russia still has an appeal. Since August, investors have poured $861 million into the Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX), the largest U.S.-based Russia fund. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable,” according to investment firm Research Affiliates in a new analysis. “Investing in Russia now is definitely discomfiting, but it might pay off in the long run.”

Here’s the opportunity they see:

Investors are watching Russia’s inscrutable and unpredictable government for any signs that President Vladimir Putin might be ready to make nice with the West or reform the Russian economy. So far, no dice. But, historically the Russian government has been more “business-friendly and reform-minded” when oil prices are low, Bank of America strategist David Hauner said in a Jan. 12 research note. Oil under $50 a barrel could spur Putin to do something about Russia’s economy, famously unproductive and overly reliant on the energy industry.

Sanctions are depriving Russia of the foreign technology and capital it desperately needs, to the tune of $100 billion in capital this year, BofA estimates. But, Research Affiliates notes, those sanctions are “relatively mild” compared with those imposed on Iran, Cuba, or North Korea. And Russia still has relatively low debt and high currency reserves, while it continues to provide much of Europe’s energy. “Logically, this crisis should pass,” Research Affiliates says.

Finally, in exchange for the extreme risks involved with Russia, investors are getting some outstanding deals. The MSCI Russia Index’s price-earnings ratio is 4, compared with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index’s 18.1. Based on their valuation, Research Affiliates calculates Russian stocks could return 16.9 percent per year over the next 10 years, more than any other developed or emerging market.

Then again, the firm also expects Russia to be the second-most volatile market in the world during that time span, after Turkey. Investors may need strong stomachs for quite a while: Without reforms, Bank of America estimates Russia won’t fully recover from this downturn until 2019.

For the original article from Bloomberg Businessweek, click here.

 

There’s an App for That: Investing Apps Challenge Brokerdealers

5075869_f260Brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of InvestmentNews’ Sarah O’Brien.

Independent brokerdealers face challenges everyday. Now with the boom of smartphones, investors are demanding investment apps for their phones. Independent brokerdealers struggle to compete because they don’t have the resources to meet these demands.

An increasingly tech-savvy investor base is challenging independent broker-dealers to meet the demand for simple technology in a way that fits into the complexities of advisers’ businesses and keeps investors’ personal information protected.

“The benchmark is being set, whether we like it or not,” said Edward O’Brien, senior vice president of technology platforms for Fidelity Institutional, during a recent InvestmentNews roundtable discussion with IBD technology leaders.

“Everyone loves the simplicity of their apps and their iPhones and everything they use every day,” Mr. O’Brien said. “We’ll be expected to somehow figure it out and sort it out for our users.”

A Spectrem study released last year showed that 23% of mass affluent investors (net worth $100,000 to $1 million) use mobile technology devices — such as smartphones and tablets — to buy and sell investments, as do 39% of millionaires ($1 million to $5 million) and 62% of ultrahigh-net-worth investors ($5 million to $25 million).

But as younger investors, who are more reliant on their mobile devices and more comfortable using technology for a multitude of tasks, begin to develop more wealth and seek out financial advisers, those percentages are expected to rise.

“The next generation spends more time on devices we haven’t even thought about yet,” said Patrick Yip, director of advisory market technology strategy for Pershing.

Security — whether regarding account access through mobile devices or for electronically stored private data — is also a major concern as technology evolves.

“Where does security fit in all of this and how do we keep privacy protected for clients?” asked Doreen Griffith, executive vice president and chief information officer at Securities America Inc.

She pointed out how frequently hacking episodes and security breaches occur at companies across all industries. According to Symantec’s 2014 Internet Security Threat Report, in 2013, there were 253 security breaches, representing a 63% annual increase and resulting in the exposure of 552 million identities.

Also, 38% of mobile users experienced mobile cybercrime in the previous 12 months, with lost or stolen devices remaining the biggest risk, according to the report.

PRIVACY EXPECTATIONS

“I think the consumer expectation of privacy is going to be changing with all of the security [breaches] that are going on,” said Ryan Reineke, chief operating officer and senior vice president of technology at Cambridge Investment Research Inc.

The IBM Security Services 2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index showed that, among the industries monitored by the company, finance and insurance were the most targeted for hacking attempts, making up about 24% of all attempts. The study also showed that among IBM’s clients, the average company endures about 1,400 security breach attempts a month.

Additionally, security concerns come into play with IBD third-party vendors. If an IBD uses a cloud service, for instance, the company has to worry about that provider’s system getting hacked.

“How about all these security reviews that we put the vendors through?” asked Jon Patullo, managing director of technology product management at TD Ameritrade Institutional. “If we were able to standardize that, it would make it easier on all of us to integrate with them as well.”

Also important is figuring out to what degree mobile device usage should be part of an IBD’s technological focus.

“One of the things we’re struggling with is trying to strategically decide where we’re going and whether or not we’re really being mobile-focused [or] touchscreen-focused, or the next thing might be voice-focused,” said Darren Tedesco, managing principal for innovation and strategy at Commonwealth Financial Network. “Ultimately where we think it’s going is to talk … It’ll be “Trade Darren Tedesco, Roth IRA, 100 shares, at market, done.’

“When you’re dealing with that as the user experience, you’re dealing with the interface,” Mr. Tedesco said.

For the full article from InvestmentNews, click here.

China Gets Ready to Offer Menu of ETFs Via Hong Kong-Shanghai Connect

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from Traders Magazine via Bloomberg LP

china(Bloomberg) — China is considering allowing international investors to buy bonds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through the link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses.

“We can offer more diversified products,” Huang Hongyuan, president of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, said through a translator at a presentation in Hong Kong on Jan. 20. “Perhaps we can move to ETFs or bonds; we can perfect further transaction arrangements.”

Since its launch last November, the link — dubbed Stock Connect — has only enabled investors to trade stocks listed on the major indexes in the two cities, with transactions capped at 23.5 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) a day. Including fixed income would give Hong Kong-based fund managers greater access to China’s 1.32 trillion yuan of exchange-traded bonds.

The proposal “is a progressive step for China to open up the capital markets,” Roy Teo, a Singapore-based strategist at ABN Amro NV, said in an interview in Hong Kong on Wednesday. “When the market opens up the difference between borrowing costs in Hong Kong and China would reduce.”

Government notes due June 2023 yield 3.49 percent in Hong Kong’s Dim Sum bond market, while similar-maturity securities in Shanghai pay 3.80 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Valuation Gap

The valuation gap between dual-listed stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong has widened since the Stock Connect opened on Nov. 17. The premium on mainland shares to those in Hong Kong was about 2 percent when the link began and ended last week at a three-year high of 33 percent, according to the Hang Seng China AH Premium Index.

China is loosening control of its currency and financial markets in an effort to attract foreign investment and increase global use of the yuan. The People’s Bank of China said Tuesday it will move forward with yuan capital-account convertibility and encourage greater cross-border use of the currency. The world’s second-largest economy needs its companies to diversify their sources of funding to mitigate borrowing risks.

To search for local broker-dealers across Asia, Brokerdealer.com provides a comprehensive database of regional brokers in China and surrounding countries.

For the entire story, please click here

Fidelity Fined For Overcharging Fees for 7 Years

fidelityBrokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of InvestmentNews’, Mason Broswell.

One of the largest mutual funds groups, Fidelity Investments has been ordered to pay a fine after inappropriately charging fee-based accounts that received brokerdealer services for over 7 years.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has ordered Fidelity Investments to pay a $350,000 fine after the firm allegedly overcharged more than 20,000 clients a total of $2.4 million.

From January 2006 to September 2013, Fidelity inappropriately charged for certain transactions in fee-based accounts in its Institutional Wealth Services group, which provides trading and brokerage services to investment advisers and their clients, Finra said in a letter of settlement.

Finra said the overcharges resulted from a lapse in supervision over how Fidelity applied fees under its asset-based pricing model, which generally charged on assets rather than by transaction.

“The firm did not clearly delegate responsibility for the supervision of fee-based brokerage accounts,” Finra said in the letter of settlement. “In fact, until 2013, the firm did not designate a supervisory principal to oversee its [institutional wealth services] asset-based pricing program.”

As a result, certain clients may have been double-billed or charged excess commissions in addition to the asset-based management fee, according to Finra’s letter. For instance, in over 1,000 fixed income transactions initiated by advisers, clients were erroneously charged a markup on the transaction in addition to the asset-based fee, Finra said.

Fidelity discovered the problems in the spring of 2012, self-reported the issue to Finra and voluntarily reimbursed all clients, according to Adam Banker, a spokesman for Fidelity. The issues affected roughly 1.5% of the brokerage accounts held for investment advisers and the majority required reimbursement of less than $100, according to Mr. Banker.

“[Institutional Wealth Services] conducted a thorough internal review of this matter, which resulted in the implementation of enhanced controls and oversight for its asset-based pricing program,” said Mr. Banker in an emailed statement. “IWS completed these steps prior to the conclusion of Finra’s review of this matter.”

The firm agreed to the settlement letter without admitting or denying the findings.

Fidelity’s Institutional group is the third-largest custodian when ranked by number of registered investment adviser clients and serves around 3,000 RIAs, according to InvestmentNews’ RIA Custody Database.

Fidelity’s direct-to-consumer, workplace savings accounts and correspondent broker-dealer clearing business, which operates as National Financial, were not affected, Mr. Banker said.