By Adriano Marchese
LPL Financial Holdings has agreed to pay an $18 million fine and to improve its anti-money laundering program to settle charges from the U.S. securities watchdog.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said that it has laid charges against the broker-dealer and investment adviser for multiple failures related to its anti-money laundering program.
According to the SEC, between May 2019 and December 2023, LPL Financial had multiple failures in how it operated its customer identification program, including a failure to timely close accounts for which it hadn't properly verified the customer's identity.
LPL also failed to close or restrict thousands of high-risk accounts, the SEC said, such as cannabis-related and foreign accounts that were prohibited under LPL's own anti-money laundering policies.
Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, the firm agreed to a censure and a cease-and-desist order, to pay the penalty and to implement improvements.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2025 09:43 ET (14:43 GMT)
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