The National Association of Securities Dealers today fined 29 brokerage firms US$9.2 million on violations related to the timely filing of regulatory information about their brokers.

The thousands of instances of late disclosures included customer complaints, regulatory actions and criminal charges and convictions.

The NASD also prohibited two firms – Merrill Lynch and Wachovia – from registering new brokers for five business days, in view of the number of their reporting violations in this case and their previous regulatory filing histories.

The NASD imposed a similar prohibition and a US$2.2 million fine against Morgan Stanley in July for late reporting violations.

The other firms hit with these latest sanctions include firms with Canadian connections such as: RBC Dain Rauscher Inc., Raymond James Financial Services Inc. and Edward Jones & Co. LP.

In settling with NASD, the firms neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but consented to the entry of NASD’s findings.

The NASD says that from January 2002 through March 2004, each of the 29 firms failed to timely report at least 25 % of the required disclosures in the areas reviewed by NASD, and some firms failed to timely report over 70%.

In addition to the penalties, each firm agreed to conduct internal audits to evaluate the effectiveness of its system for ensuring compliance with these reporting obligations. An officer of each firm must certify that such audits have occurred, that recommendations from the audits have been implemented and that the firm has established systems and procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with NASD reporting requirements.

“Investors, regulators and others rely heavily on the integrity of the information in the CRD public reporting system — and, in turn, the integrity of that system depends on accurate and prompt reporting by firms,” said NASD vice chairman Mary Schapiro, in a release. “The fact that so many firms failed in their obligation to report so much important information in a timely way is deeply troubling. These firms and others will understand from the severity of the fines and other sanctions in this case that timely reporting of broker information is a fundamental obligation that cannot be neglected or ignored.”