Frmr Brokerage Industry Czar Goes Indie With Direct Approach to Film Finance-Veterans Get a Dividend

Posted on January 28, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer turned Film Maker, Joe Ricketts

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of 18 January New York Times article.

The former founder and Chairman of online brokerdealer Ameritrade Securities, Joe Ricketts, which since morphed through acquisition and is now known as TD Ameritrade, has a plan that only a creative finance industry czar could put together…and when it comes to creative financing, he’s found his calling in the film finance space. As part of the marketing strategy, Joe Ricketts’ film, “Against the Sun”, a movie about World War II, will donate a matching amount from sales to veterans’ organizations.

Take a quiz about your open-sea survival skills on Buzzfeed. Score maybe 7 of 10, marking you as the type who might make it through a midocean disaster. And up pops an offer of, say, 30 percent off the standard $15 price to buy “Against the Sun,” a new feature film about real Navy fliers who spent 34 days adrift on the Pacific duringWorld War II.

Brutally direct digital sales techniques are standard stuff for e-commerce marketers offering credit cards, resort vacations, shoes or even books that match your presumed tastes or mood of the moment. But movie marketers have been slower to adopt contemporary online equivalents to the classic foot-in-the-door hard sell. Too slow, by the thinking of Joe Ricketts and his colleagues at his American Film Company.

Mr. Ricketts is an entrepreneur who learned a few things about salesmanship while building the TD Ameritrade online discount brokerage firm, of which he was chief executive. Now he has pointed the indie movie studio he founded toward an experiment in the use of low-cost digital marketing techniques to sell “Against the Sun.” The film is directed by Brian Falk, and it includes Tom Felton — Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” series — among its stars.

Made for a little less than $5 million, “Against the Sun” will be shown in a small number of theaters and on a wide range of cable, satellite and digital on-demand services like iTunes, starting Jan. 23. And its relatively modest marketing budget, set initially at $2 million, will be overseen by DigitasLBi, a company that has run digital campaigns for companies like American Express but has virtually no film experience.

Joe Ricketts’ new film will donated to veterans’ organizations

Mr. Ricketts wanted “a digital firm, ideally one that had never marketed a movie before,” said Alfred Levitt, chief operating officer of American Film.

Speaking jointly with George Hammer, a Digitas senior vice president who is coordinating the marketing effort for “Against the Sun,” Mr. Levitt described the sales campaign. It is intended to enhance the impact of dollars spent by focusing on transaction-ready buyers with an appetite for World War II dramas like “Unbroken,” “Fury” and “The Imitation Game.” Conventional studios recently spent tens of millions of marketing dollars on those films.

American Film struck a deal with Participant Media. Its Takepart.com website, which prods film viewers to social action, will offer “Against the Sun” with both a discount and a matching donation to a veterans’ organization, hoping to turn the socially committed into immediate buyers.

Advised of the donation plan, Lou Baczewski glanced at the online trailer and said he was ready to sign on.

A tightly networked history buff, Mr. Baczewski has written a book — “Louch: A Simple Man’s True Story of War, Survival, Life and Legacy” — about his grandfather’s experiences as a World War II tank driver, and he says he is planning to retrace a European invasion route by bike, to raise money for the Honor Flight Network and others.

Mr. Baczewski said he would happily spend money on the film if part of the profits were donated to veterans. “What better way to depict the struggles and battles of human endurance than by telling a true story?” he said.

For the entire article, click here.

Oppenheimer’s Penny Stocks Results in $20M Fine

Posted on January 28, 2015January 28, 2015 by admin

Oppenheimer fined for failure to report suspicious penny stocks

Brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Mason Braswell from InvestmentNews

Brokerdealer firm, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., has reach a deal with the SEC and FinCEN resulting in the firm paying $20 million, pleading guilty, and hiring an independent consultant over improper penny stock trades. The SEC and FinCEN said, firm failed to prevent suspicious penny stock trading and pump-and-dump schemes.

The firm, which runs a retail brokerage operation with around 1,400 financial advisers, failed to properly detect and report suspicious trades in penny stocks, which are thinly traded securities that can be vulnerable to manipulation by stock promoters, according to FinCEN. The regulator identified at least 16 customers in five states who engaged in “patterns of suspicious activity.”

“Broker–dealers face the same money laundering risks as other types of financial institutions,” said FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery, in a release. “And by failing to comply with their regulatory responsibilities, our financial system became vulnerable to criminal abuse. This is the second time FinCEN has penalized Oppenheimer for similar violations. It is clear that their compliance culture must change.”

In a parallel action, the SEC pointed to two instances between 2008 and 2010 in which the firm engaged in unregistered sales of penny stocks.

In one case, a financial adviser and his branch manager willfully engaged in unregistered sales of 2.5 billion shares of penny stocks on behalf of a customer, despite the fact that the shares were not exempt from registration, according to the SEC settlement. The trades generated $12 million in proceeds, of which Oppenheimer was paid $588,400 in commissions.

The settlement did not name the broker or branch manager, but said that its investigations into the matter were ongoing.

The other charge revolves around Oppenheimer’s role in possibly assisting allegedly illegal activity by a Bahamas-based brokerage firm, Gibralter Global Securities.

The firm disclosed in quarterly filings earlier this year.

that it was setting aside $12 million to deal with the possible fallout from regulatory investigations, mostly dealing with penny stock issues.

The head of the firm’s retail brokerage, Robert Okin, resigned in December, reportedly to pursue other interests. His Finra BrokerCheck record discloses he is facing an SEC investigation.

A spokesman for Oppenheimer, Stefan Prelog said in an email that the firm was “pleased to put these matters, which involve activity that occurred years ago, behind it.”

The firm has also agreed to hire an independent consultant as part of the settlement.

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

Posted on January 26, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer.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.

Fidelity Fined For Overcharging Fees for 7 Years

Posted on January 21, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer.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.

BrokerDealers Speculate China’s Yuan Will Be Next

Posted on January 20, 2015January 20, 2015 by admin

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of MarketWatch’s Craig Stephen.

Some brokerdealers are still recovering from the shock they received last week, when the National Swiss Bank unexpectedly announced on Thursday that they would be scrapping a three-year-old cap on the franc. Now they are trying get ahead of the curve and are predicting that China’s yuan will be the next shoe to drop, so to speak.

The surprise move by Switzerland to scrap its currency ceiling against the euro EURCHF, -0.94% last week is a reminder there can be unexpected collateral damage from central banks waging currency wars. As markets digest last week’s turmoil, expect focus to turn to other fault lines on the global currency map.

Here China stands out, as like the Swiss, it runs an implicit currency peg that is becoming increasingly painful to maintain.

Due to its longstanding crawling peg to the U.S. dollar, the yuan USDCNY, -0.21%USDCNH, +0.00% has increasingly found itself pulled higher against just about every major currency. The world’s largest exporter has already had to endure two years of aggressive yenUSDJPY, +0.85% devaluation since the introduction of Abenomics and its accompanying quantitative easing.

Now comes a new front, as the European Central Bank (ECB) looks ready to green-light its own QE next week. The move by Switzerland also means the Swiss National Bank (SNB) ceases its purchases of euros needed to maintain its peg, again meaning the euro will all but certainly head lower.

Further currency strength is likely to be distinctly unwelcome for the Chinese economy. Later this week, gross domestic product figures for 2014 are widely expected to show growth at its slowest pace in 24 years if, as some predict, the government’s 7.5% annual growth target is missed. This comes at the same time that the economy is flirting with outright deflation and amid a new trend of foreign capital exiting China.

Last week’s currency ructions present a new headwind to growth as exports will be harder to sell across Europe, China’s second biggest market after the U.S.

The other danger looming for China is that a strong currency exacerbates deflationary forces. Producer prices have been falling for almost three years, and the plunge in crude-oil prices adds a further disinflationary bent. The property market looks as if it could also push prices decisively lower. Prices of new homes in big cities fell 4.3% in December from a year earlier, according to new government data released over the weekend.

The difficulty for Beijing is that these external movements in currencies are outside its control. If moves to depreciate the euro EURUSD, -0.38% trigger another round of competitive deprecations, just how much more yuan appreciation can China withstand?

While the policy actions of both the Swiss and European central banks last week appear quite different, they share a common feature: Both acted with reluctance only when the pain became too much to bear.

The reason deflation is public enemy No. 1 for central banks is that debt becomes much harder to service and can stall growth and employment as consumers put off purchases and business put off investment.

China certainly has debt levels that would make deflation worrisome. Total debt levels are now estimated to be in excess of 250% of GDP. Lower-than-expected bank loan growth in December also suggests demand in the economy is already weak.

The other area to be concerned about is capital flows, as investors remove bets on further yuan appreciation. In recent quarters, we have seen signs of hot-money flows exiting China and foreign-reserve accumulation reversing.

Fourth quarter 2014 figures showed that Chinese forex reserves declined by $48 billion to $3.84 trillion. This could reflect both a forex-valuation effect and capital outflows with the euro and yen depreciating by 4.2% and 9.3%, respectively, against the dollar during the period, according to Bank of America data in a recent note.

Outflows widened to $120 billion in the fourth quarter from $68 billion in the third quarter, Bank of America said.

Meanwhile there are already signs liquidity is tightening. Latest figures show China’s money supply contracted in December, with M2 growth slowing to 12.2% from 12.3% a month earlier. Bank of America notes that M0 — the most narrow measure of liquidity — has been growing very slowly due to slumping foreign-exchange purchases by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

This combination of money outflows and tighter liquidity shows the challenge facing the PBOC. If capital outflows were to accelerate, it will need to use up more of its foreign-exchange reserves to maintain its currency peg.

This will reduce liquidity, unless the PBOC finds new loosening measures, among which, lower bank reserve requirements are expected this year.

But the danger lies in a possible a loss of confidence in the yuan, in which case new liquidity may just facilitate more capital outflows. Such a scenario would make it more likely that China would have to “go Swiss” and also let its currency loose.