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July 26, 2011 at 05:24 PM
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority FINRA fined SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and SunTrust Investment Services Tuesday for violations related to the sale of auction rate securities (ARS).
According to FINRA, SunTrust RH underwrote the ARS and was fined $4.6 million for “failing to adequately disclose the increased risk that auctions could fail, sharing material non-public information, using sales material that did not adequately disclose the risks associated with ARS, and having inadequate supervisory procedures and training concerning the sales and marketing of ARS.”
SunTrust IS was fined $400,000 for having “deficient ARS sales material, procedures and training.”
The fines come after a similar enforcement action against Nuveen Investments on May 24 for producing misleading ARS marketing material. Also in late May, an arbitration judgment awarded U.S. Airways $15 million from three registered representatives after the airline claimed “unsuitability, unauthorized purchases, negligence, and failure to supervise relating to its claims involving auction rate securities.”
In April, New York Jefferies Group agreed to pay $2 million to settle claims that three brokers failed to disclose conflicts of interest when selling auction-rate securities.
