FINRA Podcast: March 2013 Monthly Recap (with Lofchie Comment)
FINRA released its monthly podcast for March 2013. See the outline below.
Regulatory Notices
- Notice 1310: the SEC approved a supplemental FOCUS schedule, which applies to carrying and clearing firms;
- Notice 1311: FINRA waived continuing membership application fees for minor changes if they are withdrawn within 30 days of filing; and
- Notice 1312: changes to Regulation NMS go into effect on April 8th, which changes existing FINRA rules.
Education
- FINRA will host a webinar on rulemaking on April 23rd and encourages registered representatives to submit questions that will be answered during the webinar;
- FINRA has released podcasts covering the use of social media and its regulator priorities; and
- The SEC and FINRA will host a compliance outreach program on April 9th in Washington, D.C., focusing on compliance issues faced by large financial organizations.
News
- FINRA fined Ameriprise Financial and its clearing firm $750,000 for failing to supervise a representative who fraudulently transferred customer funds to a third party account controlled by the representative;
- FINRA also barred a broker for making unsuitable investment recommendations to 31 NFL players, resulting in a loss of $40 million; and
- FINRA also noted an increase in fraudulent account transfer requests coming from compromised email accounts of customers and called for firms to review their policies to ensure transfer requests are proper.
Investor News
- A FINRA study concluded that households without savings are three times more likely to have trouble making mortgage payments when an income shock occurs; and
- FINRA also released a new podcast with five tips for investors to improve their financial security.
Lofchie Comment: The one item in the podcast that struck me as a new compliance warning was the caution on the transfer of customer accounts.
Listen to Podcast in full here (links externally to FINRA website).