Morgan Stanley's investment unit settles with FINRA for $2.2 mln

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC said it would pay a fine of $2.2 million to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), after the regulatory body alleged that the firm submitted millions of inaccurate reports to the Options Clearing Corp, violating the FINRA rules.

FINRA claimed that in over 13 million situations the wealth management firm sent reports, on its large options positions, which missed details such as tax identification numbers, had wrong account type details and incomplete address fields etc.

FINRA typically tracks reports like those that Morgan Stanley submitted in order to identify holders of large option positions who could be, in addition to other things, attempting to manipulate the market.

New York-based Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, is a unit of Morgan Stanley, and has been a member of FINRA for seven years.

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Advertisement