The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Wednesday said that it fined five broker-dealers for understating commissions charged to customers by calling part of those charges fees for handling transactions. Each firm used the so-called handling fees as a way to increase its income by charging customers fees that far exceeded the actual cost of processing securities transactions, the regulator said. In some cases, they hit customers with handling fees of nearly $100 per transaction, earning “a substantial percentage of their revenue from these fees.” Read Bloomberg Businessweek report here.
