Morgan Stanley Fined For Failing To Deliver Fund Prospectuses Online
FINRA fined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney $1.5 million for technical failures, including a faulty website link that obstructed client's from viewing fund prospectuses. For a number of years before 2013, Morgan Stanley made mandated fund prospectuses available to customers online. However, as the FINRA settlement states, in November 2013, Morgan Stanley updated its systems but failed to make sure a working website link was in place for clients who wanted to see particular fund prospectuses. In August 2014, a client looking to see an online prospectus contacted Morgan Stanley, which alerted the firm that the link was not available, said the settlement. For nine months, Morgan Stanley failed to deliver nearly 2.1 million prospectuses to online clients through its “view prospectus” link. Between November 2013 and December 2014, due to a coding error, Morgan Stanley also failed to generate and send around 23,500 investment objective change letters to clients, the regulator stated. According to industry rules, broker-dealers are required [...]