SEC investigating major brokerages for depriving customers of best price

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators are investigating more than a dozen major brokerage firms for possibly executing some stock trades in ways that favor the firms at the expense of their customers, people familiar with the matter said Monday.

Examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission discovered the trading patterns -- in which the brokerages apparently failed to obtain the best available stock price for customers -- and notified the agency's enforcement attorneys about two weeks ago, two people said, confirming a report Monday in The New York Times. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

In an investigation described as preliminary, the SEC examiners also formally notified the firms of the problems, according to these people. They include Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab.

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