SEC slams Wells Fargo, Merrill with $60 million in penalties over clients’ cash

January 17, 2025

The ongoing effort by the Securities and Exchange Commission to get the financial advice industry to focus on the interest big firms pay to clients for their cash took another turn today when the SEC penalized two broker-dealers of Wells Fargo Advisors $35 million and Merrill Lynch $25 million for not paying clients appropriate interest in advisory accounts.

According to the SEC, the difference between the interest paid to customers by the two wirehouses on cash and the yield in other cash sweep programs was almost 4 percent, or 400 basis points.


“These penalties are certainly significant enough to draw the big firms’ attention and get the issue straightened out,” said Sander Ressler, managing director of Essential Edge Compliance Outsourcing Services.


Financial advisors working at registered investment advisors have a fiduciary obligation to work in the best interest of clients when it comes to investment safety and returns. That includes not using only one investment option for any part of their portfolio, including cash.


Investment News


“These penalties are certainly significant enough to draw the big firms’ attention," one executive said.


By Lindsey Hawkins October 28, 2025
Arbitration IQ provides expert testimony to securities law attorneys, claimants, respondents and regulators in actions involving securities law. The firm is founded and led by Sander Ressler, who ranks among the nation’s most sought-after securities law expert witnesses. He has worked on more than 600 arbitration cases, provided testimony in 150 hearings and worked with more than 70 law firms. Learn more at: www.arbitrationiq.com.
April 21, 2025
A federal judge in Brooklyn last week approved the release of $400 million in funds to some of the beleaguered investors in GPB Capital Holdings who have not seen a nickel or returns since 2018, when the private placement investment scheme began to unravel.  Meanwhile, the sentencing of two top GPB executives, founder David Gentile, and broker-dealer and sale chief Jeff Schneider, was scheduled for this week but has been moved to May, according to court filings. Last August, a jury in federal court in Brooklyn found Gentile guilty of five counts of fraud and Schneider three. The federal government’s charges stemmed from their management of GPB Capital Holdings, which was founded in 2013, GPB Capital. The money manager sold its high risk private placements through dozens of independent broker-dealers and five years later had raised $1.8 billion from wealthy clients looking for yield in a decade ago when interest rates were next to zero.