FINRA Fines Thrivent $325K Over Forged E-Signatures

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Thrivent Investment Management $325,000 for failing to establish and maintain a supervisory system to detect possible instances of electronic signature forgery or falsification.

From July 2017 to the present, at least 15 Thrivent registered representatives electronically signed customer names on over 260 documents, including documents that were required books and records of the firm, according to FINRA’s order.

Certain Thrivent registered reps “sent documents requiring a customer’s electronic signature to their own personal and work email addresses, and corresponding authorization codes to their own phones, and then falsified or forged customer electronic signatures on firm documents,” the order states.

Thrivent representatives “were able to electronically sign documents and to obtain electronic signatures from customers remotely, by emailing customers a link to documents that the customers could electronically sign,” according to the order.

“After an individual electronically signed a document, Thrivent would receive a certificate of completion identifying, among other things: the email address that sent and received the document, the cell phone number used to receive authentication codes to access documents, and the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of devices used to electronically sign documents,” the order explains.