Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

Today the Securities & Exchange Commission and an auction-rate securities task force composed of various state regulators announced that they had entered into a tentative settlement with Wachovia which would require Wachovia to buy-back approximately $9 billion of auction-rate securities. This settlement is closely patterned after an earlier settlement entered into with UBS regarding its sale of auction-rate securities.

Continue reading "Wachovia Joins Auction-Rate Securities Settlement Parade" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Raymond James , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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Today, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan announced that they were following the precedent set by UBS and Citigroup in order to settle part of their auction-rate securities problems. The tentative agreements which JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have entered into with regulators which will require that the firms will repurchase all auction-rate securities that remain held by their retail customers (identified as individual investors, charitable organizations and small businesses having assets of $10 million or less), reimburse such retail customers for any losses that they sustained in selling their auction-rate securities, set up a claims resolution process to address any unusual damages sustained by retail customers, and pay regulatory fines. The tentative agreements also provide that the firms would help their larger institutional clients (those with more than $10 million in assets) sell their holdings.

Continue reading "Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Get in the Auction-Rate Securities Settlement Line" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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The state auction-rate securities regulators task force continued to pursue financial institutions involved in the auction-rate securities market aggressively. To date, state regulators have subpoenaed approximately 30 financial institutions over their auction-rate securities practices and continue to pursue investigations with all firms that have yet to settle. The states have already tentatively settled auction-rate securities claims against Citigroup and UBS. Moreover, the state task force has identified Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase and Wachovia Securities as current targets of its investigation. In addition, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, RBC Capital Markets, and Raymond James are reported to be additional targets of the state investigations.

Recent reports indicate that the state task force is seeking regulatory settlements from each firm similar to those entered into by Citigroup and UBS. Under such arrangements, the brokerage firms would be required to repurchase all auction-rate securities that remain held by their retail customers (identified as individual investors, charitable organizations and small businesses having accounts of $10 million or less), reimburse such retail clients for any losses that they sustained by selling their auction-rate securities, set up a claims resolution process to address any unusual damages sustained by retail customers, and pay appropriate regulatory fines.

Under these precedents, the one group that has been largely unprotected is larger corporate, pension and other institutional clients who are essentially being left to fend for themselves. Under announced arrangements, the Wall Street banks are only undertaking to use their “best efforts” to assist such institutions in achieving liquidity for auction-rate securities that they still hold. Since there are no formal requirements on the Wall Street banks to satisfy the claims of institutional investors, such investors are being left to pursue their own remedies to recover damages, if any, that they have sustained.

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Raymond James , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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Today UBS tentatively agreed to buy-back $19.4 billion in auction-rate securities in order to resolve regulatory actions initiated by the Massachusetts Secretary of State, other members of a state auction-rate securities task force and the SEC. In addition, the firm agreed to pay a $150 million fine to settle the regulatory claims. The full details of the settlement will be announced next week.

The regulatory investigation asserted that UBS pressured financial advisors to sell auction-rate securities as cash equivalents that were safe and liquid without disclosing significant risks to investors. At the same time that UBS was engaged in this aggressive sale campaign, the firm, internally, was extremely concerned about the auction-rate securities markets and was exploring exiting the same. Ultimately, investors sustained significant harm when UBS and other securities dealers stopped supporting the auction-rate securities markets and auctions froze. UBS’ legal exposure was particularly severe in light of the fact that various UBS insiders were simultaneously disposing of their own auction-rate securities while the firm was encouraging investors to purchase the same.

Continue reading "UBS Will Buy-Back $19.4 Billion of Auction-Rate Securities to Settle Regulatory Actions" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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Following on the heels of Citigroup’s tentative settlement with federal and state regulators, Merrill Lynch has announced that it will offer to buy-back, at face value, auction-rate securities which were sold to individual investors, charitable institutions and small businesses. Merrill Lynch’s offer will be effective January 15, 2009 and run through January 15, 2010 according to the firm. Merrill has estimated that this offer will cost the firm approximately $10 billion.

Unlike the tentative Citigroup settlement, Merrill’s offer has not been approved by state and federal regulators and may not resolve the firm’s auction-rate securities regulatory issues. In fact, Massachusetts’ Secretary of State, William Galvin, one of the leaders of the state task force investigating the sale of auction-rate securities who recently sued Merrill Lynch over auction-rate securities, stated that “It's not satisfactory from our point of view in terms of the timeliness of redemption. Therefore, clearly, we’ll pursue our complaint.” Among other things, Merrill still must negotiate any regulatory sanctions.

Continue reading "Merrill Lynch Follows Citigroup's Lead- Attempts to Resolve Certain Auction-Rate Securities Claims" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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Today, Massachusetts securities regulators charged Merrill Lynch with fraud in the sale of auction-rate securities. The State’s complaint asserts that the major Wall Street firm was pushing its brokers to sell auction-rate securities without making the proper disclosures to investors for months after the firm knew that the market for auction-rate securities was on the brink of collapse. The states of Massachusetts, New York and Texas had previously filed similar claims against UBS.

Continue reading "State Sues Merrill Lynch For Fraud In The Sale Of Auction-Rate Securities" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Bear Stearns , Brokerage Firms , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , Regulatory Developments , UBS , Wachovia

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Many auction rate securities investors are asking whether they should sell their illiquid holdings or should wait in hopes of their auction rate securities being refinanced or redeemed. Unfortunately, there is no one answer that is right for every investor. This article attempts to discuss various factors that investors may wish to consider in making their own decision. Among other things, we discuss the status of the market, describe relevant considerations and discuss the advantages of selling and of waiting. We also provide investors with information on what they can do if they are interested in selling their auction rate securities.

Continue reading "Should Investors Sell Their Illiquid Auction Rate Securities?" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Bear Stearns , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Raymond James , Smart Investing Tools , SunTrust , UBS , Wachovia

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The subprime and credit crises affecting the economy have revealed an array of suitability abuses by Wall Street investment firms. While a rising stock market hides many abuses by brokerage firms, suitability abuses are more easily identifiable when times are tough. For example, many risk-averse investors with conservative objectives have recently discovered that they have sustained huge losses on unsuitable investments recommended to them as being very safe. Auction rate securities, short-term bond funds, AAA rated debt securities, and mortgage heavy mutual funds provide recent examples of suitability abuses.

Continue reading "Investor Suitability Claims on the Rise" »

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Posted In: Auction Rate Securities , Bank of America , Bear Stearns , Charles Schwab , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Common Securities Broker Abuses , Credit Suisse , Elder Abuses , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Keegan , Morgan Keegan Bond Funds , Morgan Stanley , RBC Dain Raucher , Raymond James , Schwab YieldPlus Fund , Subprime Mortgage & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems , SunTrust , UBS , Wachovia

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Chief executives of the world's largest financial institutions may have been a bit too optimistic in predicting that the end of the global credit crisis was near, according to a recent story by the Associated Press on MSNBC.com. In April, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld, and Merrill Lynch's John Thain were upbeat about the financial market. Sports metaphors abounded. Mack said that the credit crisis had reached “maybe the top of the ninth” of a baseball game while Blankfein compared the situation to the “third or fourth quarter" of a football game.

Such predictions of a market turnaround were premature. A wave of consumer anxiety about the financial industry, inflation, and a lull in the economy caused stocks to fall recently.

Continue reading "Wall Street CEOs Too Optimistic?" »

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Posted In: Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Market Developments , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , Subprime Mortgage & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems

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As reported by Christine Harper on Bloomberg.com and Kathy Shwiff at The Wall Street Journal on June 2, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) cut credit ratings for three investment banks, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. As a result, the firms say that they may have to book more write-downs on devalued assets.

Morgan Stanley, which is the second largest U.S. securities firm by market value, experienced a credit rating cut to A+ from AA-. Merrill Lynch, the third-biggest firm, was cut to A from A+, as was the nation’s fourth-biggest securities firm, Lehman Brothers. The credit rating of Goldman Sachs, the largest U.S. securities firm by market value, was stated at AA-.

S&P says that the “outlooks on the large financial institutions sector in the U.S. are now predominantly negative.” To date, the firms have raised about $270 billion of new capital. This capital, however, is considered to be of lower quality because much of it is comprised of hybrid securities, exceeding the S&P limits on the amount of hybrids permitted in the capital structure.

Continue reading "S&P Slashes Ratings Of Wall Street Banks" »

Posted by Page Perry, LLC | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Bank of America , Citigroup/Smith Barney , Goldman Sachs , J. P. Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch , Morgan Stanley , Subprime Mortgage & Collateralized Debt Obligation Problems , Wachovia

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