FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., issued an investor alert about the risks of ETNs, exchange-traded notes, after an investigation of Credit Suisse and Barclays ETNs this year. ETNs are often thought of as as ETFs, exchange-traded funds, but in reality, the two are very different.  ETNs are promissory notes written by banks to deliver the returns of an […]

There will be a major revamping of suitability mandates effective July 9, 2012, that has some in the broker-dealer world worried about much broader obligations to oversee customer accounts and investment strategies, writes Dan Jamieson in an article from InvestmentNews.com, July 5, 2012. There will be a rule which requires brokers to perform reasonable diligence on products, understand those […]

In a press-release dated July 2nd, 2012, from their website, The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced a pilot program specifically designed for large arbitration cases for claims of $10 million or more. This program enables parties to customize the administrative process to better suit special needs of the larger case and allows them to bypass certain FINRA […]

  Brett Henderson (CRD #2420629, Registered Representative, North Salt Lake City, Utah) was fined $95,000, which includes restitution of $82,505 payable to customers, and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for 11 months. Henderson consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings without admitting or denying the allegations, […]

  James Thomas Corne (CRD #4184489, Registered Representative, Duncan, South Carolina)   fined $5,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for three months.  Without admitting or denying the findings, Corne consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he falsified customers’ signatures on various securities and non-securities-related […]

  Edward D. Jones & Co., L.P. dba Edward Jones (CRD #250, St. Louis, Missouri)   was censured, fined $55,000 and ordered to pay $13,231.52, plus interest, in restitution to customers. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that in corporate fixed income […]

Brent Robert Bishop (CRD #2348912, Registered Principal, Tulsa, Oklahoma) has been barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity and ordered to pay restitution in the total amount of $58,000, plus interest, to customers. These sanctions were based on FINRA's findings that Bishop misappropriated funds from his member firm’s customers by intentionally converting $40,000 […]

Enrique Roy (CRD #5339904, Registered Representative, Miami Beach, Florida)  has been barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity. This FINRA sanction was based on their findings that Enrique Roy failed to respond to requests from FINRA for information about an outside brokerage account at a member firm he had opened on a customer’s […]

Alison Marie Janke (CRD #4409155, Registered Representative, Port Richey, Florida) was fined $7,500 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for six months. Without admitting or denying the findings, Janke consented to the described sanctions. According to FINRA's findings, she borrowed $100,000 from a customer which was based upon a personal […]