Fifth Third Securities Inc. (CRD #628, Cincinnati, Ohio) recently submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which the firm was censured, fined $80,000, ordered to pay $26,876.52, plus interest, in restitution to investors, and to revise the firm’s WSPs regarding step-out transactions.

Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that in transactions for or with a customer, it failed to use reasonable diligence to ascertain the best inter-dealer market and failed to buy or sell in such market so that the resultant price to its customer was as favorable as possible under prevailing market conditions. The findings stated that the firm improperly reported information to the RTRS that it should not have reported; the firm improperly reported transactions effected in municipal securities to the RTRS when the inter-dealer deliveries were step outs and thus, were not inter-dealer transactions reportable to the RTRS. The findings also stated that the firm’s supervisory system did not provide for supervision reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable securities laws, regulations and MSRB rules concerning step-out transactions.

This information which is publicly available on FINRA’s website has been provided by The White Law Group, LLC.

If you have questions about investments you made with Fifth Third Securities, Inc., the securities attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to help.  To speak with a securities attorney, please call the firm’s Chicago office at 312/238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at https://whitesecuritieslaw.com.