By Raymond James, the St. Petersburg-based financial-services company, has reached a settlement to pay approximately $200,000 to resolve allegations of charging investors excessive commissions over a five-year period. The settlement, which was announced this week, specifically relates to investors in Oregon and follows a previous multistate settlement agreed upon by Raymond James with regulators last year.
According to the spokesman for Raymond James, the company is pleased to reach a resolution regarding the commissions charged to a specific group of investors involved in small principal amount equity trades that were generated through their automated commission process. As part of the settlement, impacted clients will be fully reimbursed for the excess commission amounts, along with interest. Additionally, Raymond James has stated that necessary adjustments to their equity commission schedule will be implemented.
In July of last year, Raymond James agreed to pay $13 million to settle overcharge allegations made by a consortium of states. These allegations claimed that the firm had mistakenly collected $8.25 million in excessive commissions on over 270,000 transactions spanning from July 2018 through July 2023.
The recent settlement reached with Oregon regulators addresses the same conduct as the previous settlement; however, it was not finalized until recently. It was discovered that Raymond James had charged excessive commissions totaling over $96,000 across 2,740 transactions in Oregon. These overcharges arose from the order-entry systems defaulting to a $75 commission when they should have been charging $0 to $35 for small-dollar transactions.
In response to the settlement, TK Keen, administrator of Oregon’s Division of Financial Regulation, emphasizes the importance of protecting investors from unfair practices and states that their division will hold companies accountable if they betray the trust of their customers.
As part of the settlement with Oregon, Raymond James has agreed to pay restitution and interest totaling more than $109,000, in addition to a $75,000 civil penalty.
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