Sign In
SHARE
What, Exactly, is Finra Investigating?
Paul Jackson has a smart take on the news today that Finra is investigating sales of mortgage-backed securities to retail investors. Basically, MBSs come in two flavors: very safe, and very dangerous. Since sales of very-safe securities wouldn't trigger a Finra investigation, that would seem to imply that someone, somewhere, might have been selling mortgage-backed interest-only strips to individual investors. In 2007.
If this turns out to be the case, then it had better be some fly-by-night brokerage which is at fault. Any major shop which did this would deserve massive punishment.
Alternatively, if Finra turns out to be investigating plain-vanilla REMICs, then all brokers should start being very afraid, since these are, as Jackson says, "literally, your grandmother's securities".
It's also worth noting that according to a new SEC report, "investors typically don't grasp the difference between brokers and financial advisers". Here's one way of telling: if you're an individual investor and someone is trying to sell you an IO strip, you're not talking to a financial adviser who is acting in your best interest.
Loading...
Thank you for registering as a Portfolio.com Insider. Your comment has been added.
Create Your Public Profile
- The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
- Apr 27 2009 9:26AM EDT
- Sinking Animal Spirits
- Apr 27 2009 8:45AM EDT
- Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
- Apr 26 2009 10:00AM EDT
- Be Your Own Counterfeiter
- Apr 26 2009 9:36AM EDT
- Being Tim Geithner
- Apr 25 2009 12:37PM EDT
- Notes From a Press Conference Naif
- Apr 25 2009 9:41AM EDT
- What Good is the News?
- Apr 25 2009 8:32AM EDT
- Stressful Enough
- Apr 24 2009 2:29PM EDT
- Not Regretting the Pound
- Apr 24 2009 1:09PM EDT
- Introducing the New Ford Squeeze
- Apr 24 2009 9:47AM EDT
- Non-Economic Questions of the Day
- Apr 24 2009 9:12AM EDT
- The Stress Test Blind Alley
- Apr 24 2009 8:36AM EDT
- Happy Hour
- Apr 23 2009 9:40PM EDT
- Recovery Without Rebalancing
- Apr 23 2009 6:13PM EDT
- The Shape of Your Recession
- Apr 23 2009 5:11PM EDT
Archive
Categories
Links
- Email Ryan Avent
- Econospeak
- Financial Crookery
- The Epicurean Dealmaker
- Naked Capitalism
- Alphaville
- Marginal Revolution
- The Panelist
- FP Passport
- Overcoming Bias
- Andrew Leonard
- Barry Ritholtz
- Brad Setser
- Carbon Tax Center
- Calculated Risk
- Greg Mankiw
- Free Exchange
- Dean Baker
- Alexander Campbell
- Kash Mansori
- The Bayesian Heresy
- A Fistful of Euros
- John Quiggin
- Michael Mandel
- Lance Knobel
- Mark Thoma
- Dan Gross
- Curbed
- Streetsblog
- Chris Anderson
- Deal Journal
- MarketBeat
- DealBook
- DealBreaker
- Carl Bialik
- Michelle Leder
- Brad DeLong
- Ultimi Barbarorum
