Bradley Berman

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A broker-dealer failed to reasonably supervise its registered representatives when making recommendations of certain variable rate structured products (“VRSPs”), including fixed to floating rate steepeners and other variable rate principal-at-risk structured products, to 20 investors.  The broker-dealer violated FINRA Rules 2111 (Suitability) and 3110 (Supervision).  The behavior in question occurred prior to the adoption of…

A broker-dealer (the “Dealer”) entered into a cease-and-desist order with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to maintain and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the Compliance Obligation of Regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”), thus willfully violating the General Obligation of Reg BI.

The Dealer had written policies in…

On July 30, 2024, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed revisions to the restrictions on brokered deposits (the “Proposal”). The Proposal is intended to strengthen the restrictions to reflect the FDIC’s experience since earlier revisions in 2020 and the regional bank failures of 2023. This is generally accomplished by undoing key elements of the…

On July 1, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rule and form amendments that require issuers of registered index-linked annuities (“RILAs”) to exclusively register their offerings on Form N-4.  The final amendments (“RILA Amendments”) are focused on increasing and simplifying disclosure to RILA investors.  Under the RILA Amendments, Forms S-1 and S-3 under the…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently issued a report on vulnerabilities in the markets for commercial paper (CP) and negotiable certificates of deposit (CDs). The report analyzes the structure of the markets, identifies vulnerabilities, and suggests reforms that policy makers might consider. It acknowledges that limitations exist, and, therefore, the adoption of the reforms will…

Your issuer client is contemplating a non-deal road show and thinking about the information it can share with a select group of investors.  You know that this raises a number of issues and want a refresher.  Time to read our What’s the Deal? publication, Regulation FD!  Regulation FD requires timely public disclosure of material information…

On August 29, 2023, US federal banking regulators issued a proposal for long-term debt (“LTD”) requirements on certain midsize and larger US banking organizations (the “LTD Proposal”). The LTD Proposal is important because it would require many regional and larger banking organizations to issue significant amounts of LTD. In this Legal Update, we provide background…

On April 3, 2023 the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) announced that it will require the administrator of U.S. dollar LIBOR to continue to publish one, three and six-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings until September 30, 2024, using an unrepresentative synthetic methodology (“synthetic USD LIBOR”).  Each synthetic USD LIBOR tenor will be the same as…

On January 10, 2023, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) released its 2023 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report), available at:  2023 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program.  The Report details findings from FINRA’s recent oversight activities of the FINRA Member Supervision, Market Regulation and Enforcement programs. …