Branch Office

Do you have someone from compliance at the branch office when FINRA is examining it?  If not, you may want to rethink your current practice. ...

While FINRA’s long been interested in supervision of branch offices (IA Watch, Dec. 12, 2011), there are signs OCIE’s taking a deeper interest in this ...

In a settlement that seems to offer an object lesson to those caught in the regulatory crosshairs, Foothill Securities was censured and fined $210,000 by ...

It’s no secret that FINRA takes very seriously private securities transactions by personnel affiliated with broker-dealers (IA Watch, March 4, 2015). Recently, it has been ...

Dan Haynes, CCO of Buckingham Asset Management ($5.83 billion AUM) in St. Louis, does an inspection of each of the firm’s five branches every year, ...

If you supervise branch offices and want to be certain you’re doing it right, act like a FINRA examiner. The SRO’s interest in branch office ...

IA Watch has obtained several recent SEC document request letters (see related story). They vary. Most are for never-been-examined firms and included on-site visits. One ...

Broker-dealers that sell mutual fund "L" shares to variable annuity clients should anticipate heightened questioning by SEC examiners next year. Same thing if you sell ...

Consider conducting unannounced inspections of your branch offices on a random basis - as opposed to relying just on a triggering event. That's a change ...

The SEC and FINRA are giving dually registered firms a heads up. Some firms' branch office inspections programs have been insufficient. So, when the regulators' ...