On Friday, April 24, 2015, the credit-rating agency, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), downgraded Puerto Rico’s general-obligation bonds further into "junk" level territory from a B rating down to a CCC+ grade, making it even more difficult for the financially distressed island to borrow money and dig out from its severe financial problems. This grading means […]

Popular Securities, Inc. nka Popular Securities, LLC (CRD #8096, San Juan, Puerto Rico) was censured and fined $125,000 for alleged failure to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and procedures reasonably designed to identify and review concentrated securities purchases, including PR municipal bonds and PR closed-end funds. FINRA's findings stated that when the PR […]

Oriental Financial Services Corp. (CRD #29753, San Juan, Puerto Rico) was censured, fined $245,000 and must submit to FINRA a proposed methodology of how it will identify, review and remediate unsuitably concentrated Puerto Rico (PR) securities purchases. At a minimum, the methodology must include Oriental Financial Services Corp’s review of customers’ concentrated PR securities purchases […]

In a recent Reuters' article, Miguel A. Ferrer, the former chairman of UBS Financial Services Inc of Puerto Rico, a unit of UBS AG, told a meeting of their brokers on June 2, 2011, in San Juan, that they needed to change their mindset or leave. This was according to an audio recording in Spanish […]

On November 10th., 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced penalties against 13 brokerage firms for failing to protect their clients in the sales of high-risk government bonds issued by Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico currently has over $73 billion in public debt which has accumulated over several decades. Now in its eighth year of […]

Last week Puerto Rico passed a restructuring law that caused an immediate downgrade to it's debt from all three of the major rating services. Moody's Investors Service cut the Puerto Rican bonds three notches from a Ba2 to a B2. This leaves the bonds five notches below investment grade. The bonds which are backed by […]

UBS AG, a Swiss global financial services company that is headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, is being sued by a number of their older investors claiming they were put into mutual funds that were invested heavily in Puerto Rico bonds. According to a May 6th., 2014 article in Reuters, this risky investment cost these […]

Félix “Tito” Trinidad, a Puerto Rican boxing legend, is being pursued by creditors while he files a claim against the financial advisor who invested more than $60 million of his money in Puerto Rican government bonds. Felix Trinidad has filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) claiming that his financial advisor, José “Pepe” Ramos, […]

The struggling Puerto Rican municipal bond market is forcing the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) to hire more arbitrators in Puerto Rico, after they were swamped with over 200 investor lawsuits. After Detroit filed bankruptcy last summer, Puerto Rico's municipal bond market has been struggling. Investors are afraid of Puerto Rico's municipal debt of […]