Investors who were sold private credit funds by FINRA-registered broker-dealers may have sustained significant losses as redemption restrictions, declining net asset values (NAV), and liquidity problems continue to surface across several major products. Broker-dealers including LPL Financial, Ameriprise Financial, Osaic, and Cetera Financial Group have been among the distribution channels for these products. These funds […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) released its 2013 regulatory and examination priorities letter. The annual letter alerts the broker-dealer community to what Finra examiners will be looking for in the coming year. FINRA will continue to watch yield-oriented products this year but FINRA also will be focusing on business development companies (BDCs), exchange-traded […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 1, 2012, that they  charged UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico and two executives with making misleading statements to investors, concealing a liquidity crisis, and masking its control of the secondary market for 23 proprietary closed-end mutual funds. UBS Puerto Rico will settle the SEC’s charges by […]

In an article from InvestmentNews.com, on July 25, 2011, Dan Jamieson writes that FINRA has warned investors about chasing yield with structured products, junk bonds and floating-rate bank-loan funds. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an investor alert about the risks found in these and other products. The alert was prompted by "significant recent inflows" […]