FINRA Examining on the Violation of Puerto Rico Bond Sales
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law Offices:
In order to avoid Puerto Rico bonds being sold to retail customers who might not fully appreciate the risk of holding them, the minimum denomination requires broker-dealers to trade bonds from Puerto Rico to customers in size not less than $100,000.
After the Bond Buyer released that broker-dealers in some 70 transactions executed sold, the Puerto Rico bonds to customers in amounts below $100,000, FINRA starts examining allegations that broker-dealers violated the minimum denomination rule. Meanwhile, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) sent out a notice to members urging them to make sure they are complying with the minimum denomination requirement.
The MSRB's Rule G-15 on uniform practice requirements prohibits broker-dealers from executing trades in sizes below the minimum denomination set by the issuer, except in very limited circumstances. The board's guidance on Rule G-17 on fair dealing says that a dealer would violate that rule if it fails to disclose to a customer that it is buying bonds below a required minimum denomination and that this could affect the liquidity of the customer's position.
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