Chapter 15/16/17 Flashcards
(108 cards)
What info is required to be obtained by a RR during the account opening process?
- Customer’s name & address
- Whether customer is of legal age
- Name of RR(s) - this doesn’t apply to institutitonal accounts
- The signature of the partner, officer, or manager (principal) who approves the account
- If account is for a business, names of authorized individuals for transactions is required.
- Verification of this info must be sent to the customer within 30 days of the account opening
Institutional account
Any account > $50MM
What info must RRs make a reasonable effort to obtain prior to the settlement date of the initial transaction?
- Taxpayer ID #
- Occupation, name, & address of employer
- Whether the customer is associated w/ another member firm
This doesn’t apply to institutional accounts
True or false: FINRA mandates that a principal must provide a signature on all new cash, margin, and option account openings?
False, just for magin and option accounts
Rule 17a-3
Details information that broker-dealers must keep about their clients
- RRs must make a best effort in obtaining all the info. The customer may refuse
Trusted contact person
When opening an account, customers must list a trusted contact person. he purpose of any disclosure is to address possible financial exploitation or to confirm the specifics of the customer’s current contact information, health status, or the identity of any legal guardian, executor, trustee, or holder of a power of attorney.
True or false: Periodic updates and verification of account information must be sent to the customer at least every 36 months?
True
What must RRs do if a customer revises their info after account opening?
The broker-dealer must send a copy of the revised account record to the customer. Member firms are required to send the updated documentation within 30 days after it received notification of the change or at the time the next statement is mailed to the customer.
Suitability
An ethical, enforceable standard regarding investments that financial professionals are held to when dealing with clients. Every investment recommendation should be in the client’s best interest. Just because a customer agrees to a recommendation does NOT relieve a RR of their suitability obligation.
FINRA’s 3 primary suitability obligations
- Reasonable basis obligation: RRs must have a reasonable basis to believe that an investment is suitable for the investor
- Customer-specific obligation: RRs must believe that an investment recommendation is suitable for the specific customer
- Quantitative obligation: RRs must believe that the amount of the given investment is appropriate for each investor
True or false: An investor’s age is a factor when determining the suitability of a risk?
True
Guidelines for suitability obligations regarding institutional customers
- RRs ust have reason to believe that the institutional customer can evaluate investment risks independently.
- The institutional customer must affirmatively state that it’s exercising independent judgment in evaluating the recommendations.
- When dealing with institutional customers, firms are exempt from the customer-specific obligation that was listed previously. However, the reasonable basis and quantitative obligations standards still apply.
Retail customer
a natural person, or this person’s non-professional legal representative who uses investment recommendations primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
Client relationship summary (CRS)
Provides retail investors with info about the nature of their relationship w/ their financial professional in a understandable format. New retail investors must receive a copy of Form CRS by no later than the time they open a brokerage account, place an order, or receive a new recommendation for an account type, securities transaction, or investment strategy.
- Broker-dealers must file Form CRS with the Central Registration Depository (CRD), while registered investment advisers must file Form CRS with the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD)
3 phases of money laundering:
- Placement: illegal cash is placed into the flow of a broker-dealer’s business, most often through the purchase of securities.
- Layering: transactions occur separately to avoid detection.
- Integration: proceeds from the transactions back into the stream of commerce, making them appear to be from a legitimate source.
Structuring
A type of layering in ML that invovles the purchase of several blocks of securities each with cashier’s checks that are drawn on different institutions and in amounts of less than $10,00
True or false: Every firm must have a control person that reports to FINCEN?
True
CTRs vs SARs
CTRs: Firms must file if customer transactions are > $10,000 or aggreate to $10,000 in one day
SARs: a firm must file an SAR whenever a transaction (or group of transactions) equals or exceeds $5,000 and the firm suspects suspicious activity.
CTR and SAR filing is confidential
AML Compliance Programs
Every broker-dealer must have an AML Compliance program that includes policies/procedures, a compliance officer in charge of the firm’s AML program, employee training program, independent audit function. FOUR PILLARS.
- The independent audit occurs annually, unless the member firm doesn’t execute transactions for customers, then it can be performed every two years.
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List
Firms cannot do business w/ customer names on OFAC’s SDN list.
True or false: A broker-dealer that receives an application to open an account may waive the obligation of obtaining a taxpayer ID number if the person has applied for, but not yet received, the number. However, in lieu of the number, the broker-dealer must retain a copy of the person’s taxpayer identification application?
True
True or false: Under the CIP rules, a broker-dealer must maintain records of the methods it used to verify a customer’s identity for ten years following the closing of the account?
False, five years, and broker-dealers are required to retain records related to transmittals or transfers of funds that exceed $3,000.
Penalties for violating AML
A RR who is found guilty of facilitating money laundering may be sentenced to 20 years in prison and may receive a fine of up to $500,000 per transaction or twice the amount of the funds involved—whichever is greater.
- RRs and their firms may be held liable for being willfully blind to the activity.
Reg SP
Firms are required to have policies and procedures addressing the protection of customer information and records. Firms must have policies/procedures for this. Firms must provide their customers with a description of their privacy policies at the account opening and annually thereafter. Reg SP divides clintel into:
A consumer is a person who is in the process of providing information to the firm in connection with a potential transaction. A customer is a person who has an ongoing relationship with the firm.
A firm MUST provide a privacy notice if the firm intends to disclose information about the consumer
- Disclosure of a customer’s publicly available information is not restricted under the regulation.