Merrill Lynch Settles Discrimination Suit for $160m - Aberration or New Normal?
At the start of this month, FINRA ordered Merrill Lynch to return nearly $1.5 million to its customers. FINRA determined that Merrill reps recommended that customers purchase products in brokerage accounts rather than...more
In yet another chapter in the tortured saga of the fallout from the failed 2007 leveraged buyout ("LBO") of media giant The Tribune Co. ("Tribune") in a transaction orchestrated by real-estate mogul Sam Zell, the U.S. Court...more
Decorated lead automotive analyst John Murphy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently unveiled the 2020 edition of his much anticipated “Car Wars” report. The premise of Car Wars is simple: for automakers, a faster...more
Seems like just days ago I blogged about Jessica Hopper and her commitment to providing restitution to customers. Since I posted that blog, there were two other settlements (which I added to that blog as updates) in which...more
Firms permitting the creation and operation of custodial accounts related to Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) transactions must take special notice of Financial Industry Regulatory...more
A ruling this morning from South Korea’s top court means that Samsung’s de facto leader, its vice chair and chaebol heir Lee Jae-yong, could be heading back behind bars. The high court found that a lower appeals court “had...more
Late Friday, the Federal Trade Commission hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine for the social media company’s range of privacy violations over the past few years....more
Some U.S. tech firms are finding ways to get around the White House’s Huawei no fly zone, with Micron, Qualcomm, and Intel leading the way...more
GE—still in streamlining mode—agreed yesterday to sell its biopharma business to Danaher (current CEO Larry’s Culp’s former company, btw) for a reported $21.4 billion in the form of $21 billion in cash and $400 million in...more
I wish I had some better news for you heading into Christmas, but Wall Street was not in the holiday spirit, with all major indices diving another 2% or so on Thursday....more
A California district court recently denied a motion to vacate an arbitration award which had denied a plaintiff’s claims brought before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”)....more
The downfall of Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn continues today with news that Ghosn has been arrested by Japanese prosecutors over the recently revealed whistle-blower complaint alleging that he had “been misrepresenting his salary as...more
Coke is buying British coffee-shop chain Costa for $5.1 billion, as the coffee wars just keep on chugging. Costa has 3800 stores in 32 countries and “a foothold in China,” making Coke an instant player in the field....more
Google is facing a federal lawsuit in San Francisco over last week’s AP investigation that showed that the search giant “was sill tracking iPhone and Android device users, even if they turned off the ‘Location History’...more
U.S. Financial Industry Developments - Credit Agreements Will Require Important Updates If a Proposed New Delaware Law Is Passed - The Delaware legislature is currently contemplating an amendment to the Delaware Limited...more
On June 12, 2018, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) issued an Order instituting administrative proceedings, making findings, and imposing remedial sanctions against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner &...more
The DOJ vs. the AT&T/Time Warner deal. The much-anticipated ruling’s finally in, and . . . the merger’s a go. Repeat, the merger’s a go....more
CFTC Reduces Marketplace Barriers for Global Development Initiatives - On May 16, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's ("CFTC") Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") granted relief to...more
On May 16, 2018, Justice Shirley W. Kornreich of the New York Supreme Court granted in part and denied in part the parties’ summary judgment motions in Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors Trust Series 2006-RM4 v. Merrill Lynch...more
No US? No big deal. At least when it comes to the once-and-future TPP pact, which Japan, Canada, Australia, and 8 other US allies signed yesterday in Santiago, Chile....more
Financial institutions face enormous pressures with respect to anti-money laundering compliance. These burdens are about to grow with implementation of customer due diligence rules. In 2017, federal and state regulators...more
As we’ve been expecting, the DOJ announced yesterday that it was suing to block AT&T’s $84.5 billion bid for Time Warner over antitrust concerns....more
The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Merrill Lynch International over £34.5m for failing to report details of 68.5 million derivatives transactions in breach of EMIR and Principle 3 of the FCA's Principles for...more
Tesla’s hoping that a manufacturing plant in China—the first in the country wholly owned by a foreign manufacturing company—will translate into big sales in the Chinese market. With the Chinese government loath to give up the...more
A recent case in New York State Supreme Court, One Williams Street Capital Management LP v. U.S. Education Loan Trust IV, LLC (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. May 15, 2015), affords a useful opportunity to review the applicability and...more