According to FINRA, Cambria Capital, LLC was censured and ordered to pay $48,435.76 in restitution to customers for charging unfair commissions and failing to detect excessive trading in customer accounts.

The firm charged a commission of $75 or more per transaction regardless of the principal value of the trade. On 255 transactions, commissions ranged from over five percent to 77 percent of the transaction's principal value. The amount of commissions charged that exceeded five percent equaled $3,155.37.

The firm's written supervisory procedures failed to describe the steps principals should take to achieve compliance with fair pricing requirements. The procedures did not specify what factors to consider when determining commission fairness or how to document reviews. While principals manually reviewed the daily trade blotter for potentially unfair commissions, the blotter did not show the percentage commission charged on each trade.

FINRA also found the firm failed to establish proper supervision over excessive trading. The firm's procedures provided no guidance on calculating turnover rates or cost-to-equity ratios. The firm's clearing firm made exception reports available that flagged accounts for high turnover and high commission-to-equity ratios, but Cambria Capital did not access or review these reports.

As a result, the firm failed to identify two retail customer accounts that were excessively traded, generating $41,768 in total trading costs including $31,214 in commissions.

Additionally, the firm failed to detect unsuitable recommendations of non-traditional and volatility-linked exchange-traded products, resulting in $3,512.33 in customer losses.

No fine was imposed due to the firm's financial resources and its filing to terminate registration with FINRA.

Investors should be aware of the commissions they pay and question any fees that seem disproportionate to their trade size.