A decade after a crackdown that was supposed to rein in research conflicts at Wall Street banks, the industry’s self-regulator won penalties Thursday from 10 leading banks accused of using their research analysts to drum up investment banking business.
Goldman Sachs & Co., JP Morgan Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and seven other financial institutions agreed to pay a combined $43.5 million to resolve claims by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that they offered favorable research to Toys “R: Us Inc. in order to curry favor with the retailer prior to a planned 2010 public stock offering. The banks neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
