Wachovia Securities fined $4M - St. Louis Business Journal:

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million for violations related to the salees of mutual funds and unitinvestment trusts. A unit investmeny trust typically issuesredeemable securities, such as a mutual The trust will repurchase an investor’s securities at the investor’z request, at their approximate net assey value. Wachovia Securities was fined $4.41 million for its failured to provide investorswith sales-charge discounts and not ensurin g that investors received the benefit of net asset valuwe transfer programs. It was also finer for violations related to the sale of Clasw B and C mutualfund shares.
Wachovia Securities Financialo Network wasfined $150,500 for violations related to improper Class B share The fines reflect the $4 million-plues in additional commissions the firms received by selling Class B and C shares rather than Class A Wachovia has returned more than $5.4 million to affectesd customers. As part of the settlement, the firmz also will provide remediationto 5,85o0 households that purchased Class B and C sharexs in more than 14,500 transactiond and to additional customers who did not receive the benefi t of net asset value transfer programs.
“Firms must consider all relevan factors whenrecommending securities,” says Susan Merrill, FINRA’s executive vice presidenty and chief of enforcement. “Thre failure to provide available discounts or recommend a suitablw share class wrongly increases costs to Each firm settled without admitting or denyingthe allegations. FINRA is the largest independent regulatoer for all securities firms doing businessd in theUnited Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. was recentlyh purchased by (NYSE:WFC) of San Francisco. St. Louis-basec Wachovia Securities employs 4,800 people.