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Wells Fargo will pay $35m to settle ETF investigation

SEC says sales controls weren’t sufficient over products called too risky for some investors

Wells Fargo agreed to pay $35m to settle regulatory claims that its financial advisers recommended exchange-traded funds that were too risky for some clients.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation targeted Wells Fargo’s sale of inverse ETFs, a type of fund that moves in the opposite direction of an index it tracks. Inverse ETFs can be used to hedge other positions or bet on a falling market, but the products are complex enough that regulators have warned for years they are unsuitable for many individual investors.

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