DD Support Board and Research Team

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Alpine Securities: The worst ever perhaps...

"Alpine Securities’ $5,000 monthly account fee, 1 percent per day illiquidity and volatility fee, and $1,500 certificate withdrawal fee were unreasonable and the $5,000 fee was applied in a discriminatory manner;

"The firm’s appropriation of customer positions valued at $1,500 or less for one penny per position and 2.5 percent market-making/execution fee resulted in unfair prices and commissions;

"The firm converted and misused customer funds and securities by removing customer securities it improperly deemed “abandoned” and “worthless” and seizing customer securities to cover debits related to excessive and unreasonable fees;"

The firm engaged in unauthorized trading by moving customers’ securities from customer accounts to firm accounts without customer authorization, purportedly to cover outstanding debits and because the firm improperly identified the securities as “worthless,” and by moving customers’ securities from customer accounts to the firm’s abandoned securities accounts without customer authorization because the firm improperly identified the accounts as “abandoned;” and The firm executed an unauthorized capital withdrawal.

None of the firm’s customers authorized the firm’s transfers of their securities or seizures of cash to cover the $5,000 monthly fee."

https://financefeeds.com/finra-bans-alpine-securities-charging-5k-monthly-fees-without-consent/