How should brokerage firms be able to compensate Internet financial portals?
Websites known as portals are considered the “on ramp” to the Internet, attracting millions of monthly viewers. Well-known portals include Yahoo! Finance, America Online, Quicken.com, and Microsoft MoneyCentral. Portals have become broker-dealers’ rivals for the attention of on-line investors. In addition, portals have become important intermediaries between broker-dealers and their customers. A number of broker-dealers have entered into cobranding arrangements with portals, either paying a flat up-front fee or a per order “connection” fee for every order transmitted by an investor who hyperlinks from a portal to the broker-dealer. II. Findings and Recommendations Suitability Roundtable participants generally subscribed to the traditional notion of suitability, but suggested that the obligation did not apply to some, if not all, on-line activities. Although the participants were not unanimous on this point, the majority of them wanted clarification or guidance from regulators. Resolvin
