There are times when Wall Street's regulators just don't seem in much of a rush. When of the industry's whales is involved, everything seems to slow down. If it were one of the small fry, we all suspect that things would have moved quicker and with more devastating sanctions. In a recent FINRA settlement, the regulator alleged that Goldman Sachs had engaged in short selling misconduct from October 2015 to April 2018 involving 60 million short sale orders. And here we are 2023. What took so long?
Two public customers alleged that an error made by their TD Ameritrade rep prompted a large margin call; and, as a result, they alleged they sustained about $264,000 in damages when forced to cover. FINRA arbitrators determined that the error involved negligence. So . . . how big a check did the arbitrators tell TD Ameritrade to write out to the customers? $300 -- reimbursement for part of their arbitration filing fee.