The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Monday that it has censured and fined J.P. Morgan Securities $1.1 million for failing to timely disclose 89 internal reviews or allegations of misconduct by its registered reps, which prevented FINRA from pursuing potential enforcement actions.
From January 2012 to April 2018, JPMS failed to disclose reps’ or associated persons’ misappropriation of customer and company funds, borrowing from customers, forgery or falsification or alteration of documents, unauthorized trading, making unsuitable recommendations, structuring and other suspicious activity, FINRA states.
Broker-dealers are required to file with FINRA a Uniform Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration (Form U5) within 30 days of terminating a registered rep’s association and to file an amendment with FINRA within 30 days of learning that anything previously disclosed on the Form U5 is inaccurate or incomplete.
“When JPMS eventually filed the required information with FINRA, it was, on average, more than two years late,” which prevented or delayed FINRA, other regulators, member firms and the public from learning about the allegations, the broker-dealer self-regulator states.