Archive for the ‘FINRA’ Category
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 29th, 2011 1:59 PM |
Do those in Congress know how to read? Do they open their mail?
News is leaking that Congress may be inclined to have Wall Street’s self-regulator, FINRA, gain oversight of the investment advisory industry. That industry is currently regulated by the SEC and operates under a fiduciary standard.
The industry is fighting tooth and nail NOT to be regulated by FINRA which regulates broker-dealers under the less stringent suitability standard.
While the investment advisory industry and FINRA are duking it out, let’s return to my initial questions. Do those in Congress know how to read? Do they open their mail? Why do I ask? (more…)
Tags: Bnet, Boston Consulting Group report on self-regulators, can Congress read, Congress Wants to Give Wall Street Another Chance to regulate Itself, Constantine von Hoffman, does Congress open its mail, fiduciary vs suitability, financial regulation, FINRA, FINRA and RIAs, FINRA investigation of SAC, FINRA liquidation of auction-rate securities, FINRA vs SEC, house Committee on Financial Services, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform orm, Larry Doyle, mail sent to Congress, Mary Schapiro compensation vs Richard Ketchum, PIABA, POGO letter about FINRA, POGO letter of February 23 2010, POGO on FINRA, public policy, regulation of RIAs, SEC FOIA, SEC foia exemption, Senate Committee on Banking, Senate Committee on Finance, Sense on Cents, UBS sale of Lehman principal protected notes ehman, Wall Street SRO FINRA, Wall Street-Washington incest, where does FINRA invest its money, who is Joseph Sciddurlo, who will oversee investment advisors, who will regulate investment advisors
Posted in FINRA, General | 4 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 17th, 2011 6:46 AM |
“Good corporate governance is a system in which those who manage a company — that is, officers and directors — are effectively held accountable for their decisions and performance. But accountability is impossible without transparency.”
Truer words were never spoken. The above statement very succinctly highlights a cornerstone principle of Sense on Cents. Whomever issued this proclamation would certainly seem to be a strong candidate for the Sense on Cents Hall of Fame. Regrettably not.
Our current SEC chair Mary Schapiro offered those pearls of wisdom in December 2009 and the Washington Post concluded its commentary SEC Tightens Rules On Investment Advisers, Corporate Transparency with that quote from Ms. Schapiro. If only Mary would practice what she preached. (more…)
Tags: accountability is impossible without transparency, accountability without transparency, Citizen for Ethics and Responsibility, Dodd-Frank, FINRA, finreg, Mary Schapiro, Mary Schapiro commitment to transparency, Michael Smallberg of POGO, need for transparency, Peter Mougey of PIABA, PIABA, practice what you preach, Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, SEC, SEC exemption of FOIA, SEC FINRA Oversight, SEC Tightens Rules on Investment Advisers Corporate Transparency, securities arbitration, Sense on Cents Hall of Fame, Wall Street sro, Wall Street-Washington incest
Posted in FINRA, General, Mary Schapiro, SEC | 4 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on February 11th, 2011 7:07 AM |
I first wrote about Wall Street’s self-regulatory organization, FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) in January 2009. At that point and ever since I have believed strongly that for a revitalization of the health and confidence of our capital markets, our economy, and ultimately our nation itself that FINRA needed to become a MUCH more transparent organization. Regular readers of Sense on Cents know how passionately I feel.
Regrettably, though, outside of those regularly involved in the financial industry, I believe few people in our nation even know who FINRA is or what they do regulating Wall Street. I strongly believe that reality needs to change. Who would seem to share my belief? Amerivet Securities’ Lieutenant Colonel Elton Johnson, a member of the United States Army Reserve. (more…)
Tags: Amerivet, Bernie Madoff, Bill Anderson, Cuneo, Elton Johnson, FINRA, FINRA immunity, Finra investment portfolio, FINRA liquidation of auction-rate securities, finra oversight of madoff, FINRA transparency, is FINRA private, is the Pope Catholic, Jonathan Cuneo, Judge John Mott, Larry Doyle, Madoff, Mary Schapiro, NASD, Richard Greenfield, SEC, Sense on Cents, Wall Street self-regulation
Posted in Amerivet Securities, FINRA, General | 16 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 24th, 2011 7:00 AM |
“Who will protect me?”
How many investors in our nation continue to ask that question?
A lot!!
Throughout the crisis of the past few years and certainly well beyond that, investors have come to appreciate that they really need to learn to protect themselves. Why is that? We have rampant evidence that neither Wall Street nor the financial regulators overseeing Wall Street have truly protected investors. So now what? (more…)
Tags: a low opinion of finra, Dodd Frank Wall Street reform and Consumer Protection Act, Dodd-Frank, fiduciary vs suitability, Financial Advisor, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, financial planning, financial regulators, financial regulatory system, formation of FINRA, Global Economic Intersection, Investment Advisors Act of 1940, investor protection, John Lounsbury, Kathleen Casey and Troy Paredes, Larry Doyle, No Quarter Radio, oversight of registered investment advisers, oversight of RIAs, questions for FINRA, SEC vs FINRA, self regulatory oversight for Wall Street, Sense on Cents, Wall Street oversight, Wall Street regulation, what is an RIA, what is an SRO, who protects investors, who will regulate RIAs
Posted in FINRA, General | 1 Comment »
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 10th, 2010 6:46 AM |
I detest those people and organizations paying mere lip service to issues needing real transparency and accountability.
I love having the voice provided by Sense on Cents so I can highlight a wide array of these issues and so people can more effectively navigate the economic landscape. I also love being able to ask the hard questions and call out those whom I think are not serving the public interest.
What else do I love? I love when a voice far stronger than my own echoes my thoughts, shares my opinion, and blasts away in pursuit of real truth, transparency, and integrity along our economic landscape.
With only a few exceptions, the media as a whole has shown itself unwilling to truly take the gloves off and go after the aforementioned ‘lip serving’ individuals and institutions. Independent watchdogs in pursuit of good government are far more aggressive.
On this note and against this backdrop, I have to admit my adrenaline picked up yesterday. How so? Let’s navigate as I was informed of the following: (more…)
Tags: Amerivet Securities, Darrel Issa, Dodd-Frank financial reform, FINRA Accountability and transparency, FINRA Board of Governors, FINRA Madoff family, FINRA Madoff relationship, FINRA's board, GAO, Government Accountability Office, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House Financial Services Committee, how is Wall Street regulated, issues inside FINRA, Larry Doyle, Mary Schapiro, POGO, POGO letter to FINRA, project on Government Oversight, regulation of Wall Street, Richard Ketchum, SEC, Senate Committee on Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sense on Cents, Spencer Bachus, Wall Street collapse, what is Finra, who is Danielle Brian, who is on FINRA's board, who is POGO ?, who regulates Wall Street, will FINRA oversee hedge funds and investment advisers
Posted in FINRA, General | 7 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 1st, 2010 10:24 PM |
If you knew a market were starting to fail, would you step in and purchase that asset?
If that market were failing, but simultaneously being propped up by underwriters, do you believe regulators should protect you?
If that market were failing and a regulator charged with protecting you actually dumped some of those failing assets from its own portfolio, how would you feel?
If you owned some of these securities, do you think you might be protected by the regulator? The government?
Let’s reenter the world of auction rate securities and continue to bang the drum for those investors in America who have been so badly mistreated by the financial industry, the regulators charged with protecting them, and our government.
Although I have written voluminously on the auction-rate securities market, I was never fully aware of when auctions started to fail. Until now. (more…)
Tags: ARPS, ARS scandal, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, David Kotz, Erin Gallipeau, failure of auction rate securities market, FINRA, FINRA's liquidation of Auction Rate Securities, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Linda Chatman Thomsen, material misstatements and omissions, Reuters, SEC, SEC case 3-12310, SEC Cease and Desist Order, SEC's OCIE, Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, Securities Act of 1933, Securities and Exchange Commission, State of Colorado vs E*Trade, The Failure of the Auction rate Securities market, Wall Street self-regulator, who is Finra, who oversees FINRA
Posted in ARPS, ARS, Auction Rate Securities scandal, FINRA, General | 14 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 17th, 2010 7:25 AM |
When I worked at JP Morgan, we had a year end review process that I believe was largely a joke. Why? It lacked integrity and honesty. How so? Individuals largely gamed the system by not being forthright with each other. As a result, the overall assessment of individuals, departments, divisions, and the firm itself were skewed. I recall looking at the composite and average scores and remarking to my boss, “Our people and our firm are NOT this good.”
Mind you, JP Morgan had and still has some real strengths — but it also had some real weaknesses. Excessively bureaucratic would be a good start on the ‘weakness’ list.
I did try to grade myself and others in an honest and constructively critical fashion. Some of my reports would come to me after the fact inquiring about my assessments of them. They would often be concerned. I would respond that I had little interest in ‘gaming the system’ but I had every interest in making them a stronger and more productive employee. My being forthright and honest was “the means,” their improving and becoming more productive was “the ends.”
I raise this topic today because every individual and every organization needs a very healthy dose of constructive criticism. (more…)
Tags: a stronger America, criticism of Finra, critiquing FINRA, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, incest, integrity and honesty, Investment News Daily, John Busacca, JP Morgan year end review, JPM, Larry Doyle, Mary Schapiro, public service, Sense on Cents, Wall Street, Wall Street relationship with Washington, Washington, year end reviews
Posted in FINRA, General | 12 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on September 16th, 2010 7:36 AM |
Information is everything.
Without access to information, how can we ever learn the full and true stories currently buried beneath our financial and economic landscape? Unearthing information through every means possible is a tedious — but necessary — pursuit if we are ever to learn our mistakes and failings of the past so that we can improve our economic standing in the future.
While those in Washington would maintain that they are charged with unearthing this information, there is little doubt that the American populace at large has little confidence in the rigor of that pursuit. The greatest of Jesuit principles instilled in me from my days at Holy Cross is the ‘never ending pursuit of the truth.’ That pursuit brings us today to a story which has received significant coverage here at Sense on Cents, but not nearly enough coverage elsewhere. Let’s navigate as The Wall Street Journal writes, SEC Looks to Allay Fears on FOIA Limits: (more…)
Tags: College of the Holy Cross, financial regulation, financial regulators, fouding principles of Jesuits, freedom of information act, Holy Cross, Jesuit education, Jesuit principles, Larry Doyle, Mary Schapiro, never ending pursuit of the truth, pursuing the truth, SEC and FOIA, SEC oversight of FINRA, SEC regulation of FINRA, Sense on Cents, the Jesuits, transparency and disclosures o
Posted in FINRA, General, SEC | 4 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 22nd, 2010 10:23 AM |
While the general financial media would seem not to understand nor care that Wall Street to a large extent is a self-regulated industry, many within the industry and around the country very much care. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the financial industry’s self-regulatory organization.
At FINRA’s 2010 Annual Meeting held a week ago, FINRA’s member firms overwhelmingly voted for seven aggressive non-binding proxy proposals. These proposals were by and large targeted at bringing greater transparency and disclosure to FINRA’s operations. Will FINRA’s board of governors acquiesce and fully address these proposals? (more…)
Tags: Amerivet proxy Proposals, financial sro, finra 2010 annual meeting, finra transparency and disclosure, Investment News, John Busacca, Larry Doyle, Sense on Cents, sipa, SRO, The SIPA, Wall Street regulation, Wall Street sro, what does Finra do?, who are the FINRA board of governors, who is Charles Bowsher, who is Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, who is Ellyn L. Brown, who is Finra, who is Gary H. Stern, who is Harvey J. Goldschmid, who is James D. Weddle, who is James E. Burton, who is Jed Bandes, who is Joel Blumenschein, who is Joel Seligman, who is John F. X. Dolan, who is John J. Brennan, who is John W. Schmidlin, who is Ken Norensberg, who is Kurt P. Stocker, who is Mark S. Casady, who is Richard F. Brueckner, who is Richard G. Ketchum, who is Richard S. Pechter, who is Seth H. Waugh, who is W. Dennis Ferguson, who is William H. Heyman
Posted in FINRA, General | 8 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 20th, 2010 3:15 PM |
When might a voting process with overwhelming returns be negated by the wishes and desires of the powers that be? Am I speaking of those who may occupy bully pulpits in third world nations? No, that guess would not be close.
Am I referring to political leaders who are protected by military and business minions? Nope, still quite cold.
How about a board that is more affiliated with an organization’s executives than with its members? We are getting warmer.
What about financial regulators and a board who have the reputation of being much more closely aligned with major players within the financial industry than their rank and file members and American investors at large? Bingo!!
Let’s get more specific. A week ago, FINRA’s member firms voted overwhelmingly in favor of seven non-binding proxy proposals put forth by Amerivet Securities. In light of the vote and the overwhelming results, one would have thought that FINRA’s board would have absolutely no choice but to fully address these proposals. To do otherwise, one would think that the FINRA board might run the risk of further alienating its membership while sending a message to the American public at large that transparency and disclosures are virtues this financial regulator speaks of but does not truly practice. (more…)
Tags: Amerivet Securities, bernard madoff, Bernie Madoff, chief executive of keystone capital corp., disclosure and transparency, Elton Johnson, financial regulation, FINRA, FINRA annual meeting, FINRA board, finra membership, finra proxy prpoosals may never see the light of day, FINRA's board, investor confidence and protection, irs, jie cai, John Busacca, Ken Norensberg, Larry Doyle, les greenberg, les greenberg of culver city, lisa roth, Mary Schapiro, nancy Condon, NASD, Richard Greenfield, Sense on Cents, sipa
Posted in FINRA, General | 7 Comments »
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