FINRA recently has announced that it has fined RBC Capital Markets, LLC for charging unfair and unreasonable bonds prices to investors. The unfair prices are the result of excessive charges, known as markups and markdowns, for bond trades in customer accounts. Unlike commissions on stock trades, markups and markdowns generally have not been to disclosed to investors. So brokerage firms have been able to gouge investors without investors even being aware of the misconduct. Regulatory fines such as these could be used to assist investors in arbitration claims against brokerage firms that engaged in this form of investment fraud.
