Texas Advisor Suspended as FINRA Intensifies Focus on Outside Activities
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law:
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has continued to aggressively regulate advisors’ reporting and disclosure of outside business activities (OBAs). For instance, FINRA suspended a Texas-based Morgan Stanley advisor for three months and assessed a $5,000 fine after the advisor allegedly created a company to raise funds for small businesses absent disclosure to the firm.
In the past year, FINRA has issued 41 sanctions to advisors who allegedly participated in some way in unreported OBAs. By comparison, during the same time period in 2020, FINRA issued 31 similar sanctions to advisors.
FINRA has shown initiative to enforce Rule 3270, which restricts advisors from engaging in unreported OBAs; however, the increase in sanctions comes after numerous advisors have spent the past year working remotely. The isolation of the Covid pandemic was expected to encourage some advisors to venture into OBAs, according to Robert Colby, FINRA’s chief legal officer. Further, FINRA investigated and plans to continue to investigate advisors who requested aid program funds such as forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for Covid relief. FINRA intends to investigate whether any of the advisors violated federal regulatory or FINRA rules, which includes the ban on undisclosed OBAs.
Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.
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