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ARTICLE · 06 JANUARY 2015

FINRA Ends 2014 With An Enforcement Bang

Venable LLP
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FINRA found that Wells Fargo failed for a period of nine years to subject approximately 220,000 new accounts to identity verification.

United StatesFinance and Banking
D.E. Wilson, Jr.
D.E. Wilson, Jr.
Michael Manley
Michael Manley
Michael Rivera
Michael Rivera
Andrew Bigart
Andrew Bigart
Samuel Boro
Samuel Boro

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ended 2014 with a bang, finalizing three notable enforcement actions in December (along with several smaller cases). In the aggregate, December was FINRA's busiest enforcement month since February and resulted in the highest fines of the year.

  • Ten firms were fined a total of $43.5 million in connection with the Toys "R" Us IPO for allegedly allowing equity research analysts to solicit investment banking business from Toys "R" Us and for offering favorable research coverage.
  • Merrill Lynch was fined $1.9 million and ordered to pay restitution of $540,000 for fair pricing and supervisory violations related to the purchase of distressed securities.

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