A retired Michigan couple has filed a securities arbitration claim against Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. for sales practices that allegedly led to a loss of $650,000.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken the unusual step of opposing what a court-appointed receiver is doing in the massive Ponzi case that involves companies owned by Robert Allen Stanford.
The former chief financial officer for Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, admitting to helping Madoff carry out a massive fraud that cost thousands of people billions of dollars by lying to investors and testifying falsely when it seemed the fraud might be discovered.
Insurance carriers and producer groups are balking at a regulatory proposal that would curb commissions for agents and increase the suitability duties of insurance companies.
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board today proposed new rules aimed at ensuring that municipal bond underwriters honor issuers' wishes to preserve retail investors' access to new bond issues < http://www.msrb.org/msrb1/whatsnew/2009-47.asp>.
Massachusetts regulators sent subpoenas to four brokerage firms July 31 seeking information about the way they sold inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds. The subpoenas were issued weeks after the firms restricted the sale of the products or stopped selling them altogether.
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week charged Bank of America Corp. with misleading investors about billions of dollars in bonuses that were paid to Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. executives just before BofA acquired the New York brokerage house in January.
Attorneys and executives at broker-dealer firms are questioning the extent of National Financial Partners Corp.'s potential liability in a civil suit involving a failed life settlement transaction at an NFP affiliate.
Efforts in Congress to toughen restrictions on executive compensation likely would upend pay practices all across the financial services industry.
Administration officials have estimated the tripling of the $1 billion program could fund an additional 500,000 new car sales, giving automakers a late summer boost after months of ragged sales.
The House voted today to slap restrictions on how Wall Street executives are paid after nine banks that took government aid rewarded thousands of their employees with bonuses topping $1 million each.
Congress wants to give the government a direct role in deciding how much executives on Wall Street are paid, after the nation's biggest banks accepted billions in taxpayer money and still managed to distribute $1 million bonuses to thousands of employees.
If a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that advisers deducting fees from client accounts conduct annual surprise audits is enacted, such audits could cost as much as $24,000 apiece, some three times the $8,000 estimated by the SEC, according to the Financial Planning Association.
The so-called say-on-pay legislation that the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to act on tomorrow will apply to top brokerage executives, not stockbrokers, Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said today.
The effect of stock market volatility on families' retirement savings is just one issue that Congress should be concerned about, according to a report issued July 14 by the Congressional Research Service in Washington.
The American Council of Life Insurers is worried about efforts to establish a voluntary disability in-surance program.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely reissue a rule that classifies equity index annuities as securities and subjects them to federal oversight.
Tucked into proposed legislation that would place new compensation regulations on top corporate executives, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has specifically called for financial institutions to adhere to stricter executive pay programs that could potentially be subject to government approval.
Depending on the outcome of health care reform, investment opportunities could be found in a variety of related sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and even certain insurers.
The case for the proposed consumer financial protection agency is clear, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress today — but not to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
