Posts belonging to Category Merrill Lynch
Posted by Page PerryonAugust 4, 2011
On July 27, 2011, the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations published a report entitled “Staff Summary Report on Issues Identified in Examinations of Certain Structured Securities Products Sold to Retail Investors.” This report was based on the Staff’s review of eleven broker dealers that sell various structured […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Ameriprise, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 27, 2011
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued an investor alert warning against chasing yield with structured products, junk bonds and floating-rate bank-loan funds. The alert was prompted by “significant recent inflows” into high-yield products. Investors may find enhanced yields attractive in the current market environment of low yields on conventional fixed-income investments and higher […]
Categories: Alternative Investments, Ameriprise, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Early Retirement Scams, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Options, Promissory Notes, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 11, 2011
A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel in New York has awarded $880,000 to elderly clients of Phil Scott of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Bellevue, Washington, office, who were unsuitably 100% invested in stocks, according to Dan Jamieson’s InvestmentNews article entitled “Merrill hit for $880K arbitration award.” The arbitrators also assessed 100% of […]
Categories: Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investment Malpractice, Investor Alerts, Merrill Lynch, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Unsuitable Recommendations
Posted by Page PerryonJuly 1, 2011
SEC Enforcement Chief Robert Khuzami recently stated that the SEC’s decision not to charge top executives of Wall Street banks with wrongdoing in cases involving structured products was appropriate, according to Suzanne Barlyn’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “SEC: Structured-Product Cases Haven’t Reached Top Bank Officers.” According to Mr. Khuzami, top executives were not involved […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, UBS, Wachovia
Posted by Page PerryonJune 30, 2011
The jobs crisis is starting to hit Wall Street banks and brokerage firms, according to a series of Wall Street Journal articles (“Wall Street Wielding the Ax,” by Aaron Lucchetti and Liz Rappaport; “Credit Suisse Set to Ax 600 Jobs,” by Katharina Bart; and “Here’s Why Wall Street Is Cutting Jobs”). A regulatory crackdown on […]
Categories: Barclays, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Credit Suisse, Employment Issues, Goldman Sachs, Market Developments, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, UBS
Posted by Page PerryonJune 29, 2011
Bank of America and its Countrywide unit have reportedly agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle claims made by a group that includes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Pimco Investment Management, and Blackrock Financial Management, who have been pressing the bank for a year to honor its obligation to buyback $47 billion in […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Derivatives, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation
Posted by Page PerryonJune 21, 2011
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC has agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle SEC charges that it misled investors in a complex “built to fail” mortgage securities transaction just as the housing market was starting to plummet.
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Disciplinary Actions, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Regulatory Developments, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, UBS, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
Posted by Page PerryonJune 21, 2011
Best-selling “Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led To Economic Armegeddon,” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, “calls out greedy guys behind mortgage mess,” according to a USA Today book review by Kathryn Caravan. See also “Home Truths,” by James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal. Both reviews provide examples of how the […]
Categories: Asset Backed Securities, Auction Rate Securities, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Credit Suisse, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hedge Funds, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Structured Notes, SunTrust, UBS, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
Posted by Page PerryonJune 20, 2011
Investors in today’s markets, particularly seniors, are caught between extremely low interest rates and the risk of pursuing higher returns they want or need. Brokerage firms are capitalizing on that dilemma by selling structured products as a way to earn above-market returns purportedly without market risk. But as Robert Powel, editor of MarketWatch’s Retirement Weekly, […]
Categories: Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Suisse, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Elder Abuses, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Regulatory Developments, Reverse Convertibles, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, Smart Investing Tools, Structured Notes, UBS, Wachovia
Posted by Page PerryonJune 17, 2011
The Securities and Exchange Commission is broadening its investigation into the world of “built to fail” collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) by looking at Merrill Lynch’s CDO business, according to articles by Marian Wang of Pro Publica (“Merrill Lynch Investigated for CDO Deal Involving Magnetar”) and Kara Scannell of the Financial Times (“SEC Probes $1.5 Billion […]
Categories: Bank of America, Brokerage Firms, CDOs, Citigroup/Smith Barney, Common Securities Broker Abuses, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Investigations, Investment Advisers, Investor Alerts, J. P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Securities & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems, Securities, Securities/Commodities Arbitration, Securities/Commodities Litigation, UBS, Wachovia, Wells Fargo
