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Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 10 out of 48 results for "Puerto Rico".

2024 Brokerage Firm Risk Rankings

(Feb 2024)

By Craig McCann, Chuan Qin and Mike Yan

We previously published two papers ranking brokerage firms based on the complaint history associated with their current brokers and the complaints associated with brokers who they employed at the time of the conduct being complained about, wherever those brokers are currently employed.

We recently updated our analysis of complaints against brokerage firms and found that our earlier results were extremely useful for identifying brokerage firms likely...

UBS and Santander's Role in Underwriting Employee Retirement System Bonds

(May 2017)

We've written extensively about the UBS Puerto Rico Closed End Funds. These funds were concentrated in the riskiest subset of Puerto Rico municipal bonds - uninsured bonds with little or no market outside of the proprietary UBS funds. Our prior posts on Puerto Rico can be found on our website.

In this post we revisit the Employee Retirement System's 2008 ERS Series B offering to highlight Santander's role in this ill-fated deal. The Series B bonds were the second of three ERS offerings. The...

Puerto Rico Municipal Bond Returns and Sunspots

(Apr 2017)

Introduction

Economists use a statistical procedure called regression analysis to determine whether there is a relationship between economic variables. For example, a labor economist might use regression analysis to determine whether there is a relationship between salaries and education after controlling for differences in job tenure and geographic region. An antitrust economist might use regression analysis to determine whether an attempted collusion in the airline industry effected prices...

Santander's First Puerto Rico Family of Funds: Same Defects, Similar Losses as UBS Puerto Rico and Popular Funds

(Mar 2017)

Introduction

We have previously posted our extensive research into UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico's closed end funds - some of which were co-managed and sold by Popular.

A summary of our UBS posts as of February 12, 2015 can be downloaded by clicking UBS Puerto Rico's Bond Fund Debacle: What We Know so Far. That summary is also available in Spanish by clicking Lo que Sabemos hasta Ahora de la Debacle de los Fondos de Bonos UBS Puerto Rico.

Two subsequent UBS posts can be accessed by...

Are Employee Retirement Checks in Puerto Rico About to Stop?

(Jan 2017)

Yesterday a Joint Stipulation and Order was entered into between investors in Employee Retirement System (ERS) bonds issued in 2008 and the Governor, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Commonwealth's OMB and the ERS. The Joint Stipulation and Order and the Order Approving Stipulation, Setting Aside Hearing and Dismissing Case are available on our website.

We have written extensively about the ERS bonds. You can find more information in our blog posts on the conflicted ERS bond...

UBS Puerto Rico's COFINA Conflicts Were Even Worse Than ERS Conflicts

(Oct 2016)

We have written extensively about the wreckage caused by UBS's business model in Puerto Rico. See "UBS Puerto Rico's Bond Fund Debacle: What We Know so Far" and "Lo que Sabemos hasta Ahora de la Debacle de los Fondos de Bonos UBS Puerto Rico". All our Puerto Rico posts are available in English and in Spanish.

UBS's Farm-to-Table business model included encouraging the Employee Retirement System ("ERS") and other entities in Puerto Rico to issue bonds when no viable market except for UBS's...

Smaller Brokerage Firms Are Even Worse!

(May 2016)

Last week we posted Have 1.3% or 7.3% of Stock Brokers Engaged in Misconduct? explaining that the competing estimates of broker misconduct differ because of differences in their definition of misconduct and the sample of brokers studied.

Firms with 400 to 999 Brokers Are Much Worse Than Larger Firms.

In last week's post, we listed the 100 highest risk brokerage firms with 400 or more registered brokers sorted by the percentage of their brokers associated with Investor Harm Events as of...

UBS Puerto Rico Still Can't Shoot Straight

(Oct 2015)

We've written extensively about the investment carnage caused by UBS Puerto Rico's management and sales of closed end municipal bonds funds. A summary of our findings can be found here: UBS Puerto Rico's Bond Fund Debacle: What We Know So Far .

Others will have to decide whether UBS was just incompetent or also wolfishly indifferent to Puerto Rico investors but recent evidence demonstrates that UBS Asset Managers of Puerto Rico continues to be, at least, incompetent.

The fourteen closed end...

UBS of Puerto Rico Continues to Wreak Havoc on Clients

(Aug 2015)

In October 2014, UBS Puerto Rico settled with the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("OCFI") over UBS's lack of compliance and supervision as some brokers recommended some "mostly senior, low net worth investors with conservative investment profiles" use non-purpose loans to further concentrate their accounts in UBS PR closed-end bond funds. The UBS-OCFI settlement is available to view on our website.

As part of the settlement, UBS paid...

Why Citigroup Paid the SEC $180 Million Over MAT/ASTA

(Aug 2015)

I. Introduction

This week Citigroup paid $180 million to the SEC to settle allegations that Citigroup improperly sold high risk hedge funds known as MAT, ASTA and Falcon. The SEC Order is available to view online.

The SEC Order makes clear that Citigroup did not effectively monitor the portfolio manager or the sales force as it sold billions of dollars of high risk MAT ASTA funds with false and misleading sales presentations. In the end, Citigroup lost hundreds of wealthy clients and likely...

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