Ex-Morgan Stanley Brokerdealer Stole and Posted 900 Clients’ Data

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Ex-Stanley Morgan employee Galen Marsh

Ex-Morgan Stanley employee Galen Marsh

Brokerdealer.com courtesy of Business Insider’s Julia La Roche and Elena Holodny.

Big name brokerdealer firm Morgan Stanley took a hard hit this week after a now ex-employee stole more than 900 clients’ information and released it online.

Business Insider’s Julia La Roche originally reported on the story on 5 January.

Morgan Stanley said it has fired an employee who had stolen data from 900 of the firm’s wealth management clients.

“While there is no evidence of any economic loss to any client, it has been determined that certain account information of approximately 900 clients, including account names and numbers, was briefly posted on the Internet.  Morgan Stanley detected this exposure and the information was promptly removed,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement.

The name of the terminated employee has not been released.

For Morgan Stanley’s original press release, click here.

On 6 January Businesss Insider’s Elena Holodny wrote a follow-up story including a statement from the terminated employee.

The former Morgan Stanley employee who stole data from 900 of the firm’s wealth-management clients and posted it on the internet has come out with a statement.

Galen Marsh is “extremely sorry for his conduct,” his lawyer told Michael J. Moore for Bloomberg Businessweek, insisting that Marsh did not intend to profit off of the act.

“Mr. Marsh did not sell nor ever intend to sell any account information whatsoever,” Marsh’s lawyer told Bloomberg. “He did not post the information online. He did not share any account information with anymore nor use it for any financial gain. He is devastated by what has occurred and is extremely sorry for his conduct.”

He did not say why Marsh stole the data.

Morgan Stanley announced on Monday that the firm fired an employee, Marsh, who stole data from 900 of the firm’s wealth-management clients and then posted it on the Internet.

“While there is no evidence of any economic loss to any client, it has been determined that certain account information of approximately 900 clients, including names and numbers, was briefly posted on the internet,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement.

Information for as many as 350,000 wealth-management clients was stolen, Bloomberg reports. The firm detected account information for 900 of them on an external website.

 

IPO Market Recovers, Gives Some Hope to Silicon Valley, But Not Much

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Silicon_valley_titleBrokerdealer.com blog update profiles the recovery of the IPO market and the effects it had on Silicon Valley companies courtesy of Venture Beat’s Chris O’Brien.

Although it was a great year for IPOs, it was not necessarily a good for brokerdealers, as O’Brien explains later on, returns on IPOs in 2014 took a dramatic drop compared to returns on IPOs in 2013. Nonetheless, a strong IPO showing is projected for 2015, which could create big returns for brokerdealers in the New Year. In addition, Silicon Valley has plenty to stress as about as there wasn’t a huge IPO growth made in tech industries, the surge of IPOs came from health and biotech fields.

A tech industry that had spent years waiting for a revived IPO market finally got its wish in 2014.

The overall IPO market reached a level not seen since 2000. And Silicon Valley companies rode that wave as venture-backed IPOs soared, according to year-end data from Renaissance Capital.

Within these ample gold and silver linings, there are a few clouds looming for the tech industry as well.

First, let’s start with the good news. Here are the highlights from Renaissance:

  • The 273 IPOs in 2014 was the most since 406 IPOs in 2000.
  • IPOs were up 23 percent over 2013, even though there were some global scares like the Ukraine crisis and Ebola that in years past might have causes stock markets to freak out.
  • Money raised climbed 55 percent to $85 billion, though Alibaba accounted for $22 billion of that.
  • The number of venture-backed IPOs climbed to 124 this year, up from just seven in the dark economic year of 2008.
  • A solid pipeline and strong US economy should mean another strong IPO showing in 2015.

So, what’s there to worry about amid all this rosy news?

1. Returns were down: The boom in the number of IPOs was not necessarily great for investors. Average IPO returns were only 16 percent, a big drop from the 41 percent return on IPOs in 2013. That could put a chill on IPOs in 2015 if the trend continues.

2. Tech is not king: The surge in IPOs was led by healthcare and biotech IPOs. In particular, the overall numbers were padded by the 100 healthcare IPOs in 2014, a jump from 54 the year before. Slice off that healthcare increase, which mainly included a lot of small-cap companies, and the number of IPO offerings was about the same as 2013.

3. 2014 was very good, not great, for tech: There were 55 tech IPOs in 2014, up from 45 the year before. Those IPOs raised $32 billion, though that includes Alibaba’s $22 billion haul. Back that out, and you still have a nice increase from the $7.9 billion raised in 2013. But tech companies are hardly printing money. And talk of a bubble remains just plain silly.

4. China rules: This year will be remembered for the monster Alibaba IPO offering, followed by China’s JD.com offering that raised $1.8 billion. Those were the only two tech companies to make the list of the year’s 10 largest IPOs. And with China’s Internet population more than double that of the U.S., the center of the tech world could continue its shift to Asia.

None of these things should dampen the tech industry’s celebration of a solid year. But they’re a good reminder that Silicon Valley shouldn’t get overconfident when it comes to IPOs and think just any company with a little momentum can go public. Investors can afford to be selective.

And, really, that’s probably a good thing for all of us.

For O’Brien’s original article in Venture Beat, click here

 

Countdown of Biggest Regulatory Brokerdealer Fines of 2014

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Bgavelmoneymi-resize-600x338rokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Investment News.

Brokerdealer.com works to provide people with a full and complete database of brokerdealers best suited for their needs. Unfortunately, some brokerdealers do not always follow the rules and this year many received hefty fines. Investment News ranked the top 10 of the biggest fines handed down to brokerdealer firms this year, excluding penalties given to indivuals at the firms.

10.  WFG hit for supervisory failures

Firm Fined: WFG Investments

Fine Amount: $700,000

Reason for Fine: Failing to commit the time, attention and resources to a range of critical obligations in its supervision of registered reps.

9. Berthel Fisher forced to pay over compliance

Firm Fined: Berthel Fisher & Co. Financial Services Inc.

Fine Amount: $775,000

Reason for Fine: Failure to supervise the sale of alternative investments such as non-traded REITs and leveraged and inverse ETFs.

8. LPL’s alternatives sales prove costly

Firm Fined: LPL Financial

Fine Amount: $950,000

Reason for Fine: Supervisory deficiencies related to sales of nontraded REITs, oil and gas partnerships, business development companies, hedge funds, managed futures and other illiquid investments.

7. Stifel’s million-dollar problem

 Firm Fined: Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and its subsidiary, Century Securities Inc.

Fine Amount: $1 million

Reason for Fine: Selling leveraged and inverse ETFs to customers for whom the investments were unsuitable, as well as the firms not having proper training or written procedures in place to make sure their advisers had an “adequate and reasonable basis” for recommending the products.

6. Retired brokers cost Morgan Stanley

Firm Fined: Morgan Stanley

Fine Amount: $1 million

Reason for Fine: Paying approximately $100 million in commissions to approximately 780 unregistered, retired brokers without properly ensuring they were no longer soliciting or advising.

To see the full list of fines and see which firm received the largest fine of 2014, click here

 

 

Japan’s 2nd Biggest BrokerDealer Bolsters Plan For Myanmar Stock Exchange

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BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of excerpts from 23 Dec story published by the WSJ, with reporting by Alexander Martin and Shibani Mahtani

myanmar exchangeJapan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc., its research arm and Japan Exchange Group Inc. said Tuesday they signed a joint-venture agreement with Myanma Economic Bank to establish Myanmar’s first-ever stock exchange in Yangon.

The deal is the latest tangible sign that plans for Yangon’s stock exchange, which the government aims to have up and running by October 2015, are moving forward.

Japan Exchange Group and Daiwa Institute of Research would “continue to contribute to the development of Myanmar’s capital market and the expansion and deepening of economic relations between Japan and Myanmar through the establishment of Yangon Stock Exchange,” the companies and Myanmar’s state-owned bank said in a joint statement.

The deal followed an agreement signed in May 2012 between Daiwa Securities and the Tokyo Stock Exchange to help set up the exchange after Myanmar began opening up the previous year following nearly five decades of military rule.

In November, the former headquarters of Myawaddy Bank in Yangon was chosen to house the stock exchange. Building renovations will be finished by June or July, according to Myanmar’s deputy finance minister, Maung Maung Thein, in preparation for the exchange’s launch.

Despite the progress, analysts have said they remain skeptical that the timeline for the exchange is achievable, given the multiple delays in overhauling Myanmar’s once military-dominated financial system.

In a note to clients earlier this month, political risk consultancy Vriens & Partners wrote that “serious doubts remain as to whether the stock exchange will be ready to move forward” by mid-2015. The consultancy also said that “questions remain around technical know-how” required to set up the exchange.

For the entire story from the WSJ, please click here.

European BrokerDealers Band Together For Equity Trading Platform

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Traders-at-the-DAX-index--007Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of Will Hadfield of Bloomberg.

Six banks are developing a new not-for-profit platform to trade European equities called Plato Partnership Ltd.

Barclays Plc (BARC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley (MS) plan to use the venue to reduce trading costs, increase transparency and simplify markets, according to a statement.

“The platform would seek to ensure market integrity and the protection of orders with the goal of ensuring fairness for all participants,” the consortium said in the statement.

The banks intend to set up the trading venue under a trust, or similar structure, to prevent them from reneging on the principles at a later date. They will spend any profit from the platform on academic research designed to improve Europe’s market structure.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and Norges Bank Investment Management have also joined Plato Partnership.

“We feel that the time is right to launch this proposition, which would seek to enhance the market by delivering additional liquidity and functionality to market participants,” Stephen McGoldrick, Plato’s project director, said.

Brokerdealer.com can provide you with the ability to work with the above mentioned brokerdealers on the new equity trading platform they have created through one of Brokerdealer.com’s many databases.

For the original copy of Hadfield’s article from Bloomberg, click here