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HomeARS Update: STILL Hostage in the ARS Roach Motel
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 6th, 2012 4:38 PM |
Wall Street may think it is back to business as usual, but what about those investors and our fellow American citizens who were left behind and forgotten as a result of the crisis from 2008? Of whom do I speak?
The tens of thousands of our fellow citizens who remain hostage in the ARS Roach Motels.
Who are the managers of seemingly the most grotesque ARS Roach Motels? Oppenheimer Holdings and Pimco. How do we know? (more…)
Auction Rate Pain Continues: February 14, 2008 to February 14, 2012 Recommended
Posted by Larry Doyle on February 14th, 2012 6:07 AM |
“Larry, they have forgotten about me. I do not know what to do and I have nowhere to turn.”
In so many words, I received that message from an Oppenheimer Holdings customer just yesterday who continues to be unable to access his cash which remains locked up in auction-rate securities a full four years to the day that the ARS market totally froze.
This is America?
We have an administration and regulators which fabricate settlements and try to support people many of whom were financially imprudent? But who is standing up and speaking out on behalf of those remaining ARS investors who were defrauded by financial intermediaries and cannot access their funds from what were supposedly cash surrogate investments?
Four full years later and tens of thousands of our fellow citizens remain largely disenfranchised and disowned and unable to access tens of billions of dollars that is THEIR MONEY?
This is America? (more…)
Keep Pressuring the Wall Street-Washington Incest
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 20th, 2010 9:17 AM |
Incestuous relationships can last a long time. When two willing consorts are engaged in incest without it being exposed, the incest can grow and ultimately become cancerous. Incestuous partners may believe they are pleasing each other at little expense to other family members. What a lie. Make no mistake, there is always a third party involved in incest. Who is that? Collectively, the family. In the case of our financial crisis circa 2010, the incestuous relationship between Wall Street and Washington has badly damaged the American family. Let us not allow either of these incestuous partners to define our current turmoil by asking family members to pick sides.
Why am I writing this? (more…)
POGO Podcast Questions FINRA’s Transparency and Integrity
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 6th, 2010 12:24 PM |
Regular readers of Sense on Cents know all too well my questions and concerns about the lack of transparency at the Wall Street self-regulatory organization FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).
I am a big fan of promoting transparency in order to pursue integrity. Who else is a big fan of the same goals? The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) :
. . . an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government. (more…)
FINRA and ARS: Pot Calling Kettle Black
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 25th, 2010 2:34 PM |
Thanks to a loyal Sense on Cents supporter for sharing the most recent copy of Compliance Reporter, a publication of Institutional Investor, Inc.. The lead article this week, FINRA Readies Slug of Enforcement Cases, addresses the fact that FINRA:
is targeting a slew of enforcement actions across a range of areas, including reverse convertibles and auction-rate securities.
Oh boy, here we go again. FINRA talking tough about auction-rate securities. Additionally, FINRA further flexes its muscle by:
warning firms that strained layoffs and resources are no excuse to delay responses to FINRA’s request for document production requests.
This self-regulatory organization has truly got some set of balls talking about delayed responses to requests for documents and information. (more…)
“FINRA Is Supposed To Police The Market”
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 29th, 2009 6:52 AM |
I have written extensively about FINRA’s ownership of Auction Rate Securities over the last few months. This morning Bloomberg reports, FINRA Oversees Auction-Rate Arbitrations After Exiting Market.
The Bloomberg article (I am humbled by Bloomberg quoting me in the story) answers a number of questions I have raised, while also opening the door to other issues needing to be addressed:
1. Was FINRA blinded – if not totally conflicted – in addressing the trading, selling, and marketing of Auction Rate Securities? Try 862 million times.
2. Was FINRA lucky, prescient, or well informed in the timing of the sale of their own Auction Rate Securities? We may never know but given that their first “guidance for investors” was not published until after the market had totally frozen, they certainly did not provide much investor protection as is their mandate.
3. I have also written, and Bloomberg highlights, that FINRA had money invested in hedge funds. In light of market developments, I think the public has a right to know which hedge funds. Will FINRA release that information?
4. I unearthed all the information of FINRA’s investment activities from its 2007 Annual Report published in April 2008. I am still waiting for FINRA to release its 2008 Annual Report and wonder why it seems to be delayed.
5. As we move forward with likely regulatory changes for Wall Street, I believe the very nature of a self-regulatory organization funded by the banks it is charged to oversee presents massive conflicts of interest. This specific situation of FINRA’s investment in ARS is indicative of those conflicts. Will Congress have the courage to address these conflicts and serve the public interest in the process?
“To me it smacks of incompetence and negligence,” said Larry Doyle, who worked 23 years on Wall Street and runs a Web site called Sense on Cents. “Finra is supposed to police the market.”
I view FINRA as akin to the palace guard. The question remains, Does The Palace Guard Have No Clothes?
LD
