Securities Arbitration

Morgan Stanley & Co. lost a FINRA arbitration dispute last week to Banco Nacional de Mexico SA. A FINRA panel ordered Morgan Stanley to pay the Mexican bank, commonly referred to as Banamex, $4.5 million, finding Morgan Stanley liable for negligence and negligent supervision. The case was filed by the bank against Morgan Stanley in 2012. The statement of claim alleged fraud and negligence among other allegations and asked the FINRA panel to order Morgan Stanley to pay over $5.2 million. The dispute centered on whether Morgan Stanley allowed funds in a family's trust account to be used to repay third-party loans without its authorization. The trust was established in 2007 with proceeds from the sale of property that a group of adult siblings and their mother had inherited. Banamex was the trustee to the family's trust account and hired a broker at Morgan Stanley to manage the accounts that same year. The trust accounts were held at a banking [...]