Royal Alliance producers are positive about the firm's new Web-based workstation, dubbed Vision 2020.Royal demonstrated the new workstations for brokers in regional meetings last fall. Now, any of the firm's 3,800 reps who are equipped with a...
Like Elliot Ness in "The Untouchables," who led the charge to clean up Al Capone's gangster operations in Chicago, the Securities and Exchange Commission executed its first major sweep against fraudsters on the Internet. In October, the SEC filed...
Merrill Lynch and American Express Financial Advisors are fighting to preserve their ability to sue departing brokers.Largely at Merrill's urging, with support from American Express, the NASDR has delayed the effective date of a final rule...
In 1999, the securities industry will sponsor a pilot program allowing a target of 100 customer cases in the next two years to go to arbitration at independent forums, such as the American Arbitration Association (AAA), as an alternative to the...
In a closely watched case involving Merrill Lynch, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled in December that a former Merrill rep can proceed to court with an age discrimination and sexual harassment case. But the 58-page...
Former Kidder Peabody reps who stayed on with PaineWebber after the 1994 buyout are now free to roam about the country. In January, their four-year forgivable loans expired, removing one golden handcuff that may have kept some at the firm...
Merrill Lynch's recent foray into providing online research via its "Ask Merrill" Internet service has prompted at least one competitor, Salomon Smith Barney, to consider doing something similar."Merrill's move is obviously going to open up a part...
Brokers at most major firms will see little change in how they're paid this year. Brokers at Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber, though, have new compensation plans that deliver a strong message: Adapt to fee-based business or die.Merrill reps in 1999...
Last month, the SEC concluded its nearly five-year-old investigation of widespread price-fixing and manipulation on Nasdaq. Twenty-eight firms and 51 individuals were cited and fined a total of $26 million.But top industry execs are off the hook...
Spot reviews by provincial securities commissions in Canada have found that some mutual fund companies and dealers are ignoring recently enacted sales practice rules.Last May, national regulations went into effect banning such practices as...
