Colorado Division of Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph on Wednesday sanctioned UBS Financial Services Inc. in a case where the state alleged that the brokerage firm allowed some of its sales assistants to accept unsolicited orders to buy or sell securities from Colorado residents without being properly licensed in the state.
As part of the settlement, UBS has been censured and ordered to cease and desist from future violations, and to pay back licensing fees and a penalty to the state of Colorado in the amount of $66,314.
The settlement concludes an investigation led by state securities regulators into allegations that UBS allowed its sales assistants to accept trade orders from clients, a practice that requires licensing in the sales assistant’s home state and in the client’s state.
The Division of Securities investigation found that this was not always the case and that UBS’s supervisory system was not reasonably designed to ensure that its sales assistants fully complied with Colorado’s licensing requirements.
UBS was also found to have violated the books and record rules because its order tickets did not always identify the person who accepted a client order.
A multistate task force investigated the allegations. State securities regulators from Colorado, Texas, Missouri, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire and Delaware were part of the task force.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939, hpankratz@denverpost.com or
