Protect Yourself, Clearing Broker Tells Clients

Look out, small broker-dealers without the huge resources of an institutional broker that has large legal and compliance staffs. Often you don’t know or understand the dangers your firm is facing.

That’s the warning of officials of First Clearing Correspondent Services in St. Louis. They say that, in an age of huge potential legal and correspondent risk, the clearing firm must be proactive and prepared for new kinds of risks.

“Many of the risks that firms used to focus on don exist anymore because they’ve been supplanted by an entirely new collection of concerns driven by technology and regulatory change,” according to Al Caiazzo, chief risk and quality officer for First Clearing.

“The new concerns and risks are occurring at a pace never before seen,” he added.

First Clearing is offering a new line of risk management and compliance supports that covers several areas: Educational support, providing experts who discuss issues such as information security, consulting, which includes operational risk management and regulatory compliance, and events that help educate the firm’s professionals and new technologies as well as tools.