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Finra’s Arbitrators: Dubious, Asleep—Sometimes Dead

When a couple in Wichita claimed they lost $187,500 in what they called a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by a Morgan Stanley (MS) broker, the industry-funded Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) provided a list of potential arbitrators to resolve the dispute. Two of the people were dead, one for more than two years, according to Diane Nygaard, the couple’s lawyer. She calls the faulty list a sign of a broken system that has failed to protect investors. “If it were a regular judicial system, you would not have a case appointed to people who are dead,” she says. “Wall Street should not have a special pet court that they operate.” Millions of Americans who have brokerage accounts must take any disputes about their investments to arbitration rather than court, a requirement that was upheld in a 1987 Supreme Court ruling. After a string of lapses that cast doubt on the system’s fairness and quality, Finra is seeking to reform the system that lets Wall Street keep its dirty laundry out of court. Read More on Bloomberg BusinessWeek here.

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