SEC Proposal To Address Brokers’ Conflicts of Interest Bashed

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Latest SEC Proposal Broker Conflict of Interest Causes More Than Confusion. Anyone Surprised?!

It would only seem logical that, after counting the thousands of instances (which are only partially revealed via Finra’s brokercheck database) in which retail investors have been ripped-off by licensed investment brokers who have sold an investment product without disclosing conflicts of interest courtesy of incentive fees or kickbacks those brokers are making from third parties when selling seemingly simple and/or complex investment products to the respective customers.  After all, the burden of establishing rules of the road and regulating the practice of selling investment instruments has long been the domain of the US Securities & Exchange Commission and secondarily on Finra, which is a self-regulated body that governs the broker-dealer space–which is comprised of the universe of brokers who sell investment products.  The SEC mandate–according to altruists–is to protect investors from abusive practices advanced by those selling investment products by establishing regulations that protect investors. Further, Finra’s mandate is to impose standards of compliance and to police broker-dealers to ensure they comport with SEC regulations.

Aside from the last comments being somewhat redundant, all of this would seem to make sense, were it not for the fact that Finra is the SEC’s biggest lobbyist. Finra member firms (who pay membership fees) are comprised of all of the brokerages that sell investment products to retail investors and by default, Finra is therefore conflicted when having the biggest lobbying influence on the SEC as to the rules and regulations that govern those member firms.

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Mr. Trump and Mr. Clayton (SEC Commissioner)

Yes, there are consumer advocacy groups that lobby the SEC to ensure proper protections are in place for unwitting investors. But, the fact is those advocacy groups do not have anywhere near the resources to effectively influence the handful of SEC Commissioners who are handpicked by the prevailing administration–meaning those sitting inside the White House. All one has to do is consider the circuitous path aggrieved investors must take when they’ve been wronged to realize the system is stacked against them, starting with investors having to bring their claims via an industry arbitration forum and foregoing their rights to sue the wrong-doers in an actual court of law. Once in arbitration, investors then face a forum that is typically overweighted with “expert” industry professionals–the folks who work for Finra member firms, whether as consultants or direct employees. More important, all one has to do is analyze the number of cases brought by investors against a member firm and their respective broker to recognize the cases resolved in favor of the investor are dwarfed by the number of instances in which a ‘no harm no foul’ determination is made in favor of the defendant.

The good news is that in recent years, enough outcry on the part of investors has led to among other things, the federal government establishing an independent watchdog in the form of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose role “is to make consumer financial markets work for consumers, responsible providers, and the economy as a whole. We protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and take action against companies that break the law.”  Further, thanks to prior White House administration, the SEC adopted a new set of standards intended to better protect the investor from their investment brokers and imposing guidelines that called for greater transparency and more granular disclosure as to conflicts of interest on the part of investment brokers so that investors could fully understand exactly where their investment dollars were directed and the actual returns on investment they could anticipate receiving.

The bad news is that Finra has fought with tooth and nail to water down those regulations and much like the NRA, they’re experts at navigating the swamplands of Washington DC.  Further bad news-the Trump Administration’s doctrine to loosen regulations on banks and brokers with the goal of making it less onerous insofar as compliance overhead and regulatory oversight so banks can make big profits on transactions and enable them to be more leveraged has also taken aim at those pesky conflict of interest disclosure requirements imposed on investment brokers.

Before TrumpWorld (the political version of WestWorld), it was acknowledged that brokers should be disclosing fees they earn, including commission being charged to the customer and incentive fees the broker is getting paid from the manufacturer of the investment product.

But we know that Trumpeteers have long campaigned to turn the clock back and with the influence of the orange-haired guy sitting in the Oval Office, to bring the world back to the 1950′s so that business titans and US-styled oligarchs who play golf at Mar-A-Lago could become fatter cats than they already are.  And that mindset has included the investment broker space, as evidenced by Trump’s SEC latest proposal to water down existing rules and pending legislation that would favor investors as opposed to the brokers selling investment products–who after all-are either country club members or who vie to be. That’s what makes America great, right?

Something funny happened after the SEC’s latest proposal-investors and brokers have balked. Here’s the opening excerpt from the WSJ coverage..

SEC’s Proposed Curbs on Stockbroker Advice Under Attack

Plan from Trump-appointed officials at SEC runs into criticism from both brokers, investors

WASHINGTON—A government proposal to restrict incentives that can bias broker advice to clients is generating complaints both from Wall Street and investor advocates.

The plan by the Securities and Exchange Commission, developed by Trump-appointed officials, may replace some aspects of an Obama-era regulation by the Labor Department that Wall Street successfully challenged in court. A federal court invalidated the Labor rule, and the Trump administration declined to appeal the decision, killing it for good.

Now investor groups, brokerages and other business groups are taking shots at the SEC’s attempt to address brokers’ conflicts of interest, saying that it is too vague and won’t improve protections for investors. The commission must consider the comments before it can vote to implement the regulation, perhaps sometime in 2019.

The SEC proposal would require brokers to act in the best interest of clients, barring the picking of lackluster or unsuitable investments because they make more money for them or the brokerage firm.

Investor groups say the SEC’s proposed requirements are so ambiguous that they won’t change the status quo. Brokerage firms, meanwhile, complain the measure creates a new standard without telling them how their brokers might run afoul of it. They also complain it treats them more harshly than investment advisers, who have a fiduciary duty to put their clients’ needs first.

“This will only serve to harm the brokerage model and limit choice for those investors who prefer the brokerage advice model,” wrote the American Securities Association, whose members include Cowen Inc., Stifel Financial Corp. and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.

The SEC didn’t define “best interest” in its April proposal. It also didn’t explicitly state how brokers should “mitigate” conflicts of interest that can undermine their need to provide legitimate recommendations.

To read the full coverage, click here

FINRA Has a Facebook Data Breach Problem; Whistleblower

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FINRA, other regulators mishandled brokerage account data. Just like Facebook, Inc.!

If you’ve been on another planet during the past two weeks, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) reported that the company’s data network was hijacked by a “political intelligence” firm posing as an academic researcher and used captured data of 50 million Facebook users to launch a Trump-friendly advertising campaign in the weeks and days leading up to the 2016 Presidential election. We know how that worked out. Well, according to a whistleblower, it appears that US securities industry self regulator FINRA left its back door wide open too.

Per Bloomberg reporting, “..A whistleblower is accusing some key financial regulators of allowing sensitive broker information to become readily accessible, even as industry watchdogs emphasized the need for companies to protect client data.

According to a complaint lodged with the SEC, personal data such as brokerage account numbers provided to an industry-funded regulator have long been easily accessible online. Separately, Social Security numbers and other information meant to be kept private also was made publicly accessible by state regulators for years up until 2015, according to the complaint, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News.

At issue is material on brokers and their firms gathered by FINRA and other regulators to help clients keep tabs on the people handling their money. To spot potential red flags, the SEC encourages investors to search the data that’s housed in the sprawling Central Registration Depository of more than 3,700 broker-dealers and hundreds of thousands of people authorized to work in the securities industry.

Some of that information, which is used in FINRA’s BrokerCheck online portal and passed on to state authorities, has been mishandled, said the whistle-blower who asked not to be identified in discussing the allegations for fear of reprisals.

While both FINRA and the North American Securities Administrators Association acknowledged past problems in a response to questions from Bloomberg News, they dispute any contention that they’ve been negligent in efforts to clean-up the disclosures.

The issues shed light on the massive back-office systems maintained by regulators and the difficulty of keeping the sensitive information in them private. There is so much data that FINRA has a team of more than 30 people who review filings and runs hundreds of automated queries to look for information that shouldn’t be made public.

“They’re sitting on top of an even larger amount of private data than the firms they regulate,” said Donald Langevoort, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. “There is an immense amount of cynicism about the ability of any institution public or private to do a good job at safeguarding privacy.”

Concern over financial regulators’ ability to safeguard data led to congressional hearings last year after the SEC revealed that hackers broke into its corporate filing system and accessed two people’s names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. That disclosure followed a massive breach at Equifax that may have led to the theft of personal data on about 150 million Americans.

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FINRA Trying to Be More Transparent; No Easy Trick

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Brokerdealer regulator FINRA trying to be more transparent is no easy trick considering that its constituency is often conflicted when it comes to the topic of disclosure and visibilty, but industry veteran Tom Gira, EVP of Market Regulation is putting his best foot forward.

(Traders Magazine) –Nov 19–The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is right on top of the evolving financial market structure and to that end, has announced new initiatives designed to increase market transparency.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is right on top of the evolving financial market structure and to that end, has announced new initiatives designed to increase market transparency.

Thomas Gira, Executive Vice President, Market Regulation at FINRA, laid out the regulator’s future plans in remarks made Tuesday, November 15 at the Inaugural Traders Magazine Equity Market Structure Town hall forum at the Upper Story in New York City. In speaking to the audience, he assured that the group is on top of changes in the market and seeks to continue to provide clarity, guidance and transparency into the trading markets.

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Tom Gira, FINRA EVP Market Regulation

Gira provided a brief recap of what initiatives have already been put into place, creating a “multi-faceted safety net for the markets and are designed to promote investor confidence.” Among the changes, he told of how regulators adjusted the market-wide circuit breakers, which give market participants an opportunity to assess their positions, valuation models and operational capabilities when extreme periods of volatility occur. On top of that, the marketplace now has a limit up/limit down regime, which addresses the type of sudden individual stock-price movements that the market experienced during the May 2010 flash crash.

Also, he reminded that the Securities and Exchange Commission has also passed the Market Access Rule, which requires firms entering orders into the market, or allowing their customers to enter orders into the market, to have pre-trade controls to avoid erroneous and duplicative orders and to establish pre-trade capital and credit controls on orders entered into the market, among other things. And most recently, the SEC implemented Regulation SCI to strengthen the technology infrastructure of the U.S. securities markets.

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“In sum, I think we are rightly focusing on the evolution of the market more than whether there is something seriously wrong with the market,” Gira said. “So in that vein, I would like to focus on how FINRA is working to stay ahead of issues through our focus on transparency and by making use of innovative technology in our surveillance programs.”

Among the new transparency initiatives, FINRA is continuing to look at ways to expand its Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine, or TRACE, which looks at the trading of corporate bonds and their trade data, including the price and size. The system is now looking at expanding TRACE to include transaction and quote data for the $13 trillion Treasury market.

“There is currently no centralized trade reporting system for Treasuries. Regulators, including FINRA, the SEC, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board, have taken steps to implement a transaction-reporting regime for Treasuries,” he said. “Starting next July, firms will have to report certain transactions in Treasury securities to TRACE.”

At this time, he added FINRA will not disseminate information on transactions in Treasuries. This new requirement will significantly enhance the ability of FINRA and other regulators to understand trading activity in Treasury securities.

To continue reading this story by John D’Antona, Jr from Traders Magazine, click here

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Wall Street Cops Turn to AI for Market Surveillance

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FINRA Market Surveillance Crew Gets the “Artificial Intelligence Memo” After NASDAQ and LSE introduce AI tools to Monitor “Layering.”

(Reuters)–27 October-Artificial intelligence programs have beaten chess masters and TV quiz show champions. Next up: stock market cheats.

Two exchange operators have announced plans to launch artificial intelligence tools for market surveillance in the coming months and officials at a Wall Street regulator tell Reuters they are not far behind. Executives are hoping computers with humanoid wit can help mere mortals catch misbehavior more quickly.

The software could, for instance, scrub chat-room messages to detect dubious bragging or back slapping around the time of a big trade. It could also more quickly unravel complex issues, like “layering,” where orders are rapidly sent to exchanges and then canceled to artificially move a stock price.

A.I. may even sniff out new types of chicanery, said Tom Gira, executive vice president for market regulation at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

“The biggest concern we have is that there is some manipulative scheme that we are not even aware of,” he told Reuters. “It seems like these tools have the potential to give us a better window into the market for those types of scenarios.”

FINRA plans to test artificial intelligence software being developed in-house for surveillance next year, while Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) expect to use it by year-end.

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The exchange operators also plan to sell the technology to banks and fund managers, so that they can monitor their traders.

Artificial intelligence is the notion that computers can imitate nuanced human behavior, like understanding language, solving puzzles or even diagnosing diseases. It has been in development since the 1950s and is now used in some mainstream ways, like Siri, an application on Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone that can engage in conversation and perform tasks.

While financial firms are already applying artificial intelligence software for everything from compliance to stock-picking, it is only starting to become useful for market oversight.

“We haven’t really let the machines loose, as it were, on the surveillance side,” said Bill Nosal, a Nasdaq business development executive who is overseeing its artificial intelligence effort.

50 BILLION EVENTS

Market surveillance generally relies on algorithms to detect patterns in trading data that may signal manipulation and prompt staff to investigate.

But the sheer volume of data can lead to an overwhelming number of alerts, many of which are false alarms.

FINRA monitors roughly 50 billion market “events” a day, including stock orders, modifications, cancellations and trades. It looks for around 270 patterns to uncover potential rule violations. It would not say how many events are flagged, or how many of those yield evidence of misbehavior.

The “machine learning” software it is developing will be able to look beyond those set patterns and understand which situations truly warrant red flags, said Gira.

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence in which computers figure out new tasks without having been programmed to do so. In the case of market surveillance, that would mean the computers “learn” which trading patterns lead to enforcement charges, in order to flag the right ones.

FINRA plans to test the new tool next year alongside its existing systems to compare the results.

The regulator has already moved its surveillance systems to Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) web-based Cloud, giving it more computing power to quickly analyze massive data.

Nasdaq is working with cognitive computing firm Digital Reasoning, which it invested in earlier this year.

LSE has teamed up with International Business Machine Corp’s (IBM.N) Watson business and cyber-security firm SparkCognition to develop its A.I.-enhanced surveillance, Chris Corrado, chief operating officer of LSE Group, told Reuters in an interview. Watson has become something of a household name, having bested contestants in the game show “Jeopardy” in 2011.

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FINRA Election Mirrors Presidential Race?

Bob Much FINRA Board Member

Ex-Bear Stearns Partner Pledges To Make FINRA Great Again

FINRA, aka Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the SRO that serves as overseer of the securities brokerage industry and broker-dealers at large has completed the election campaign and voting process for electing individuals to its Board and the election winners include a former Bear Stearns partner as well as a current senior exec of hedge fund complex Bridgewater Associates.

Per WSJ-The chief executive officer of a San Francisco investment bank prevailed in a hard-fought election to join the board of Finra, the front-line regulator of stockbrokers, knocking off an incumbent and a well-known challenger who campaigned on the message that rigid oversight is choking small firms.

Bob Muh, the CEO of Sutter Securities Inc. and a former Bear Stearns partner, narrowly defeated three other candidates to win a seat on the board of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He beat the second-place candidate, Stephen Kohn of Lakewood, Colo., by just three votes, according to people familiar with the matter. Robert Keenan, a sitting board member who also upset an incumbent when he won his last election in 2013, placed third. Mark Howells, a broker based in Scottsdale, Ariz., also competed in the race.

Finra, one of the country’s most powerful financial regulators, allows the industry it oversees to elect some of its officers. While Finra isn’t a government agency and ultimately answers to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Congress has sanctioned its role as a standard-setter and rule-enforcer for the brokerage industry.

Finra’s bylaws require that a majority of its 24-member governing board have no industry ties. But Finra reserves three board seats to represent its 3,550 small-firm members. That board structure has fostered the unusual dynamic of candidates campaigning for office at the overseer by vowing to lighten its oversight.

Turnout in the election was about 43%, meaning about 1,500 of Finra’s small-firm members voted, people familiar with the matter said. (For the full WSJ article, click here)

A more colorful take on the above is courtesy of DealBreaker’s Jon Shazar:

t may surprise you (but probably shouldn’t) to learn that there are some people who think FINRA’s doing too good and too thorough a job regulating broker-dealers. That it’s really nobody’s business if a broker levies an unspoken lap dance fee. That its website is actually too up-to-date and too easy for clients to use to find out about the levying of unspoken lap dance fees. That the problem isn’t FINRA’s habit of whitewashing what broker records are available, but that there are just too many disciplinary actions being taken that require whitewashing. These people are called FINRA members, specifically its 3,550 small-firm members. And because self-regulation is a hilarious carnival of ineptitude and bad optics, these small firms get to elect a representative to FINRA’s board, to represent their interest in going unregulated to the greatest extent possible.

These triennial contests have all the hallmarks of a real political campaign: websites, mudslinging, throw-the-bums-out mentalities. Unsurprisingly, they also look an awful lot like a local Tea Party meeting, with candidate trying to one-up the other in making deregulatory promises they’ll never be able to keep in the face of the 23 other FINRA board members who don’t think it’s a great idea to provocatively antagonize customers, the press and the Securities and Exchange Commission at every turn.

This year, the bum getting thrown out was Robert Keenan, elected three years ago on the platform that the previous bum wasn’t doing enough to get these regulatory pencil pushers off their goddamned backs, and who was felled by the same sword. But the winner—who will get to serve alongside fellow new FINRA director and Bridgewater exec Eileen Murray—wasn’t the most fire-breathing of the candidate. Instead, by a margin of all of three votes out of 1,500 cast, the small folks of FINRA picked a 78-year-old former Bear Stearns, Bob Muh, partner to carry the doomed torch.

Mr. Muh, 78 years old, was seen as a moderate and experienced voice in a campaign in which Mr. Kohn accused Mr. Keenan of playing fast and loose with campaign rules and not pushing back hard enough against regulations that brokers oppose….

“I certainly can’t call it a landslide or a mandate, but I’m delighted I’ll have the chance to convince the independent directors on the board of some the changes that are need for the small firms,” Mr. Muh said in an interview Monday after Finra announced the results.