An irreverent Wall Street Blog
BrokeAndBroker.com Blog by Bill Singer WEEK IN REVIEW
July 22, 2017
A FINRA JP Morgan Arbitration,Jamie Dimon's Embarrassment And Bill Singer's Apoplexy http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3533/finra-arbitration-u5/
BrokeAndBroker.com Blog publisher Bill Singer, Esq. lives and works in New York City. The Big Apple has become the Baked Apple the last few days as it is stewing in the midst of a heat wave. Bill doesn't like 90 degree weather. Frankly, Bill doesn't like a lot of things, as readers know from his daily jeremiads and rants. Imagine how cheerful Bill is today, a steamy, hot Friday in late July. Not exactly a picture conjuring the cheerful "Mr. Bubbles," the nickname many of Bill's friends give him. For the record, Bill doesn't have any friends just acquaintances, and he tends to unfriend or block most of them.
Today's installment of "Dyspepsia with Bill" involves a recent FINRA arbitration that sort of looks like a loss for a former JP Morgan Securities employee except he won punitive damages. The FINRA Arbitration Decision also seems to make sense except when Bill puts it under his magnifying glass and notices lots of scratches, nicks, and shmutz (yeah, that's a word, look it up). Finally, Bill read, and re-read, and then re-re-read the arbitration panel's proposed revision of the employee's reason for termination. Bill was not a happy camper after that. If you plan on reading Bill's commentary, go find a pair of oven mitts before you put your hands on your computer keyboard, tablet, or smartphone. READ http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3533/finra-arbitration-u5/
Elder Abuse Allegations Arise In Wedbush Arbitration http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3532/finra-arbitration-elderly/
The roughly 75 million Millennials recently passed the number of Baby Boomers with Generation Xers projected to exceed the latter's numbers sometime in 2028. As such, a large chunk of our population is now elderly. Unfortunately, elder abuse continues to rear its ugly head on Wall Street as aging Baby Boomers are projected to remain a significant portion of the overall population for many years. In a recent FINRA arbitration case, among the allegations is one of elder financial abuse. Read how the arbitrators wrestled with the issues and ultimately issued their award. READ http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3532/finra-arbitration-elderly/
BREAKING NEWS: Second Circuit Overturns Rabobank LIBOR Convictions http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3531/libor-allen-conti/
FULL TEXT OPINION online at BrokeAndBroker.com
$1 A Day Meal Expenses Brown Bags FINOP http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3530/finra-meal-finop/
In a recent FINRA regulatory settlement, we come across the plight of a FINOP who couldn't resist billing his firm for about 20 months worth of meals, which ran about $700. Doing the math, that's $700 divided by 20 and you carry the 3 and then use the square root thing with a rounding error and . . . okay, so we're talking about $35 a month in meal expenses, which is about $1 a day over 20 months. If the Respondent could have pulled this off over a span of about 33,333 months (using 30-day months and not taking into account leap year or a zombie apocalypse), he could have realized a million dollars in purloined meal expenses! Sometimes you just need to think big!
Too bad that the C-suiters at FINRA's large member firms are always meticulous about never padding their expense vouchers. Given FINRA's zeal in going after a FINOP for about$1 a day in allegedly improper reimbursement demands, imagine how bountiful a harvest the industry's self-regulatory organization would reap if the senior executives at its major firms engaged in similar misconduct. Then again, as we all know, the bosses at the big banks and brokerages never, ever pad their expense accounts. Course not. No way. Ask FINRA, they will confirm that immutable truth. Too bad because I can only imagine how easy it would be to clean up Wall Street if we held the big boys to the same exacting standards as the small fry!
HINT TO FINRA: Demand the last five years of meal reimbursement vouchers from all large firm C-suiters. READ http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3530/finra-meal-finop/
I Scream, You Scream, FINRA Screams For Ice Cream http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3529/finra-awc-ice-cream/
It's been hot in New York City the last several days and, well, you know, prominent industry lawyer Bill Singer has been sent into a paroxysm over the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's recent regulatory settlement involving the purveyor of a purportedly world famous premium frozen custard. Bill like ice cream. Frankly, he likes it too much. Wouldn't kill him to drop a few pounds but we don't think that this is a particularly good week to bring up his chubbiness. You ask Bill, those are not love handles. Those are massive amounts of rock-hard abdominal muscles in a relaxed state, ready to be called up on a second's notice for feats of strength. It seems something of a vicious cycle. FINRA aggravates Bill. Bill self medicates his anger with dessert. Bill puts on weight. The extra weight makes Bill even crabbier, which given his baseline crabbiness isn't that good a thing. All of which means that Bill is easily upset by what he views as FINRA's nonsense. You have any idea how vulnerable Bill is these days to a sale in the frozen section of Talenti gelato, sorbetto, or ice cream? READ http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3529/finra-awc-ice-cream/
There are lots and lots of reasons for terminating folks on Wall Street. Ya got yer illegal conduct, ya got yer violations of regulatory and compliance rules, ya even got yer failure to follow in-house stuff like policies and employee handbooks. According to a recently enunciated doctrine, Wall Street employers may now fire employees for failing to "recognize" the "questionable activity" of their peers or managers. Oh my! With all the "questionable activity" that goes on every day in our financial markets, what exactly is it that the industry's men and women should be careful to "recognize?" READ http://www.brokeandbroker.com/3528/finra-arbitration-state-street/