Finra Takes Aim At MetLife BrokerDealer Unit

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(Bloomberg) — MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, said the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s staff has indicated the agency will seek a “significant fine” from the company’s broker-dealer unit as part of a probe into possible violations tied to variable annuities.

The company is cooperating in this investigation, MetLife said Thursday in its quarterly regulatory filing. The probe focuses on potential violations “regarding alleged misrepresentations, suitability, and supervision in connection with sales and replacements of variable annuities and certain riders on such annuities,” MetLife said in the filing.

Finra, the brokerage industry’s regulator, is among government watchdogs seeking to guard against abuses in the sale of retirement and savings products in the U.S. The authority told the insurer on Sept. 25 that it would recommend disciplinary action, according to the filing.

“We strongly disagree with the conclusions reached by Finra, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” John Calagna, a spokesman for the New York-based insurer, said in an e-mailed statement. “MetLife is reserved for this matter.”

The insurer said in the filing that its estimate for reasonably possible legal costs in excess of reserves was as much as $425 million. That compares with an upper range of $410 million at the end of the second quarter.

 

Goldman Smacked: Finra Fine of $1.8mil re OATS Violation

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(Bloomberg) — BrokerDealer Goldman Sachs Group Inc agreed to pay $1.8 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims that one of its units submitted inaccurate trading information over a period of eight years.Goldman Sachs agreed to resolve the claims without admitting or denying the findings, Finra said in a statement Monday. Wall Street’s self-funded regulator accused the bank of sending bad data to the Order Audit Trail system, which Finra uses to monitor the trading practices of regulated firms.

“OATS data is integral to Finra’s automated market surveillance program to detect manipulative activity and other potential violations of Finra rules and federal securities laws,” Thomas Gira, executive vice president of market regulation, said in the statement.

From July 2006 to March 2015, Goldman Sachs transmitted inaccurate or incomplete information on more than 20 percent of all trading data submitted to Finra, the regulator said.

The conduct centered around the firm’s dark-pool trading venue Sigma X, which has been working on improving its technology. The New York-based bank hired Raj Mahajan, the former head of high-frequency trader Allston Trading, in January to run its equities electronic execution business, which includes the dark pool.

“We’re pleased to have concluded this matter,” Tiffany Galvin, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, said in an e-mailed statement. “We self-reported many of the issues to Finra, voluntarily took steps to fix those issues, and provided substantial assistance to the Finra staff conducting the investigation.”

Finra Fines Bolster BD Regulator’s Finances

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Finra, aka Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc, the broker-dealer industry’s regulator announced a major uptick in revenues and profits, including a 2-fold increase in revenue collected from fines imposed on brokerdealers and others.

Finra’s income for 2014 jumped more than $100 million, as a result of cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures, InvestmentNews reports.

In particular, the industry-funded watchdog doubled money raised through fines, despite a drop in the number of actions, while a voluntary retirement program ate into overall expenses.

Finra’s net income jumped to $129 million in 2014 from $1.7 million in 2013, according to the regulator’s annual report cited by InvestmentNews. Revenue increased from $900.7 million to $996.6 million. In large part, this was due to the $132.6 million collected in fines during 2014, compared to $60.4 million in 2013. While the number of monetary sanctions dropped from 754 in 2013 to 645 in 2014, the average fine soared from $80,100 to $205,600 in the same time period, according to the publication.

Finra also had a 5.8% return in its investment portfolio, which rose from $1.954 billion in 2013 to $2.076 billion in 2014. The regulator attributed this primarily to its fixed-income holdings, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the authority cut its expenses from $998.9 million to $964.8 million from 2013 to 2014. This was helped by 176 employees taking voluntary retirement, according to the report, says InvestmentNews.

Mind you, the number of Finra executives earning $1 million or more went up, from four in 2013 to seven last year. And its member firms each got a $1,200 rebate to offset the regulator’s annual gross-income assessment.

To read the full article, click here. 

Morgan Stanley, Scottrade Settle Insufficient Supervisory Charges

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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Monday that it fined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC and Scottrade Inc. a combined $950,000 for insufficient supervisory systems to monitor the transmittal of customer funds to third-party accounts.

Morgan Stanley was fined $650,000 after Finra found that, from October 2008 to June 2013, three registered representatives in two different branch offices converted a total of about $500,000 from 13 customers by creating fraudulent wire transfer orders and branch checks from the customers’ accounts to third-party accounts. Supervisory failures allowed the conversions to go undetected, Finra said.

Scottrade, which was fined $300,000, didn’t obtain customer confirmations for third-party wire transfers of between $200,000 and $500,000 from October 2011 to October 2013, according to Finra. The agency alleged Scottrade processed transfers totaling about $880 million during that period.

Morgan Stanley, which has around 16,000 brokers and advisers, and Scottrade, which has around 2,000 registered brokers, agreed to the sanctions without admitting or denying the charges.

A spokesman for Scottrade, Whitney Ellis, said in a statement that the firm has resolved the issue after updating its procedures in 2013 and improving the notification process for third-party transfers.

A representative for Scottrade said clients now receive multiple notifications of pending wire transfers, and the appropriate supervisory procedures are in place.

Finra Chief Says This About Broker-Dealer Fiduciary Rules

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Richard Ketchum, Finra

BrokerDealer.com update profiles Finra Chairman Richard Ketchum’s position on the topic of broker-dealer guidelines and respective fiduciary standards.

Below extract is courtesy of FA Magazine

Calling a fiduciary rule for broker-dealers a “must,” Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Chairman and CEO Richard Ketchum laid out model guidelines Wednesday.

Ketchum said the standard is needed because too many brokers are pushing complex financial products on investors without appropriate fee and risk disclosures.

The regulator said a more stringent customer-focused standard for brokers other than suitability is also advisable because some firms continue to approach conflict management on a haphazardly and some fail to adequately discuss potentially higher fees involved in IRAs to permit a customer to make a fully informed decision.

He said the standard should be based on three essential tenets: active identification and management of firms’ conflicts; dramatically improved disclosure of risks associated with the product and product-related fees, firm and third party incentives; and more effective management of the compensation incentives to registered persons.

“The best interest standard should make clear that customer interests come first and that any remaining conflicts must be knowingly consented to by the customer,” said Ketchum.

To protect retail investors from conflicts of interest, the Finra CEO said the rules should require brokers to have an ongoing process to identify conflicts which could be costly to investors and develop written supervisory procedures to address how those conflicts would be eliminated or managed.

Also key to an effective fiduciary standard would be enhanced disclosures through an annual Form ADV-like document annually providing clear, plain English descriptions of conflicts, and all product and administrative fees, said Ketchum.

To continue reading the coverage from FA Magazine, please click here