Blaming, Naming, and FINRA Gaming

Singer claims that brokers who go unnamed in complaints may still face disclosure issues based on Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's rules. Frequently, a clients strategy in omitting the name of a registered person from a complaint caption is to pave the way for a quicker settlement with a deep-pocketed brokerage firm. Moreover, the omission may be used as a bargaining chip whereby the client's attorney not-so-subtly reminds the brokerage firm of the value in protecting its unnamed stockbroker's reputation (keeping in mind that the initial complaint can often be amended at later dates to add respondents).