From time to time, I have lamented that FINRA does not hold itself to the same lofty standards to which it holds its members.  I realize I am painting with a broad brush, as there are lots of folks at FINRA who do a great job, who are easy and reasonable to deal with, and who don’t play games.  But, that is not the case across the board.  And every once in a while, FINRA…

My partner, Heidi VonderHeide, has busied herself these last few months learning everything she can about Reg BI.  Happily, here is her post on the subject, and it doesn’t predict gloom and doom in the new year as that regulation is implemented.  – Alan Just before the Holidays, I attended FINRA’s one-day Reg BI seminar in Washington D.C., where member firms and regulators (but primarily the SEC) discussed the new rule and what they hoped it…

Between the usual holiday season madness and a recent trial, I have been a little tied up lately.  Happily, Chris Seps has stepped up with this excellent piece on Reg BI. – Alan   My young boys will sometimes chase me around the house, catch me, and yell “gotcha” as they drag me off to their pretend jail.  No matter how much I plead that I’ve done nothing wrong, I always end up in jail,…

This post is about Reg BI, but if you really want to learn about it, as opposed simply to listening to me gripe, I urge you to register for the webcast that my partners Heidi VonderHeide and Rob Betman will present on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, at 2:00 PM EST.  It is just one of four financial services webcasts that Ulmer & Berne is hosting in December.  As previously noted, they are free, and not only that,…

In December, Ulmer & Berne is hosting four financial services webcasts, the first of which I will be presenting along with my partner, Michael Gross:  FINRA 2019: A Look Back, and Thoughts About What Lies Ahead (Wednesday, December 04, 2019, 2:00 PM EST).  The others are The Anatomy of a Whistleblower Action: Procedure, Practice Pointers, and Avoiding Pitfalls (Thursday, December 05, 2019, 2:00 PM EST); Hot Topics in SEC Regulation and Enforcement (Wednesday, December 11,…

Here is how PIABA’s one-track mind operates: in a Report it just issued, PIABA laments the frequency with which registered reps are able to get customer complaints expunged from their records. The sole reason for this, PIABA concludes, is that the expungement process is broken, and/or is being gamed by brokers. It does not even enter the realm of possibility for PIABA that the real reason arbitrators are receptive to requests for expungement – arbitrators…

In the past week, I ran across two discrete instances in which FINRA acts as a secret gatekeeper of sorts, exercising its own subjective judgment, without anyone knowing what, exactly, it is doing or why, employing unarticulated standards, and without providing any avenue for redress.  And I find that really frightening. The first involves CRD, which, although it is nothing more than a database of information, is a weird place.  Over the years, it seems…