Credit Suisse faces $275,000 fine for failing to post reliable investment advice

The largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States, the FINRA declared that it has imposed a fine of $275,000 against Credit Suisse Securities, for failing to comply fully with one of the key terms of the 2003 Global Research Analyst Settlement between regulators and 13 leading financial services firms. One of the primary purposes of the Global Settlement`s requirement to provide customers with independent research is to ensure that individual investors could obtain reliable, objective investment advice.

Credit Suisse failed on a number of occasions to post all of the required, current independent research to its Web site since 2004. Thus, from April 2007 to September 2007, it failed to make available to its customers 32,500 required independent research reports, while some of the research reports that were posted were not the most currently available at the time. Separately, from December 2004 to October 2007, Credit Suisse failed to post independent research from certain research providers for 224 of its covered companies, although independent research coverage by other providers remained available for all but 45 of these companies. The firm failed to detect this deficiency for nearly three years. Finally, beginning at various points from September 2006 to July 2008, Credit Suisse failed to post required independent research for 35 additional covered companies because the firm neglected to deactivate a filtering system in its research database that excluded certain companies from its research website.

The requirement to provide customers with independent research was part of the Security and Exchange Commission’s final agreement with Credit Suisse and was incorporated into a separate agreement with FINRA. In settling this matter, Credit Suisse neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA's findings.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through comprehensive regulation. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business, from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms; writing and enforcing rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities; and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and firms.