Businesses left out of Auction Rate Securities Settlements?
As discussed in this Bloomberg article, the settlements reached by regulators regarding auction rate securities sales with many of the large brokerage firms fail to help medium to large businesses who were also sold ARS. Although the required buyouts in the settlements with UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wachovia Corp. reached $35 billion, this amount only approximates 18% of the $200 billion estimated to be still outstanding.
Although the settlements call for the firms to use their best efforts to help institutional investors stuck with the frozen ARS, they fall short of requiring a buyback. This situation may force mid-sized to large companies to seek redress on their own through the arbitration or court system. Please contact Greco & Greco if your business is holding frozen ARS as a result of fraudulent sales practices of a brokerage firm.
Posted by Greco & Greco on 08/22 at 03:58 PM
Arbitration •
Auction Rate Securities (ARS) •
Brokerage Firms •
Citigroup •
J.P. Morgan •
Merrill Lynch •
Morgan Keegan •
UBS •
Wachovia •
State Regulators •
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