Hold Brothers On-Line Investment Services LLC (“Hold Brothers”) has developed a Business Continuity Plan (“BCP”) on how we will respond to events that significantly disrupt our business. Since the timing and impact of disasters and disruptions is unpredictable, we will have to be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. With that in mind, we are providing you with this information on our BCP.
Contacting Us – If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us as you usually do at (201) 499-8700, you should call our alternative number (646) 865-7400 or go to our web site at http://www.holdbrothers.com.
Our Business Continuity Plan – The details of our BCP are proprietary and confidential and cannot be made publicly available. Nevertheless, Hold Brothers plans to quickly recover and resume business operations after a significant business disruption and respond by safeguarding our employees and property, making a financial and operational assessment, protecting the firm’s books and records, and allowing our customers to transact business. In short, our BCP is designed to permit our firm to resume operations as quickly as possible, given the scope and severity of the significant business disruption.
Topics which may be addressed in our BCP include: data backup and recovery; mission critical systems; financial and operational assessments; alternative communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical location of employees; critical supplier, contractor, bank and counter-party impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their funds and securities if we are unable to continue our business.
While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, Hold Brothers’ objective is to restore its own operations and be able to complete existing transactions and accept new transactions and payments within a reasonable period of time. Not unexpectedly, orders and requests could be delayed during this period.
Varying Disruptions – Significant business disruptions can vary in their scope, such as only our Firm, a single building housing our Firm, the business district where our Firm is located, the city where we are located, or the whole region. Within each of these areas, the severity of the disruption can also vary from minimal to severe. In a disruption to only our Firm or a building housing our Firm, we will transfer any necessary operations to a local site when needed and expect to recover and resume business within a reasonable period of time. In a disruption affecting our business district, city, or region, we will transfer necessary operations to a site outside of the affected area, and recover and resume business within a reasonable period of time. In either situation, we plan to continue in business, transfer necessary operations to our backup facility if necessary, and notify you through our web site at http://www.holdbrothers.com or our customer emergency number, (646) 865-7400 how to contact us. If the significant business disruption is so severe that it prevents us from remaining in business, we will assure our customer’s prompt access to their funds and securities.
Updates to this disclosure – As we continue to test our plans and as conditions in our firm and the industry change, we will continuously revise the plans as considered necessary. Whenever we update this disclosure document we will promptly place a copy of it on our website. You may request a hard copy of this disclosure in its current revision be sent to you at any time by mail.
For more information – If you have questions about our business continuity planning, you can contact us at (201) 499-8700.
Privacy Policy
We at Hold Brothers are sensitive to the necessity of protecting your personal and financial information. As a member of the FINRA, we are required to collect personal information relating to you, your account(s) and your investment characteristics. This information is known as “non-public personal information”. We collect this information from various sources, primarily applications and forms completed by you for us, and from third party providers. We use this information to provide you and your account with the highest level of professional service.
Hold Brothers understands the concerns about the use and protection of this personal and account information.
We at Hold Brothers are committed to maintaining the highest levels of safety and security for information you provide, either online or otherwise. Toward this goal, please note:
A- We are dedicated to protecting your personal and account information.
B- We will use this information to service your account(s) and provide information about services or products you have requested.
C- We will not sell or distribute your information to any unaffiliated third parties
(i) We may provide information
in concert with regulatory requirements of certain agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the FINRA and other organizations to which we are responsible, or with which we are, or may become, affiliated;
(ii) We may also provide information to other institutions, who may, or may not be affiliated or under common control with us, if such information is required to service your account (for example, we provide information to our clearing firm to allow them to appropriately service your account. You will receive a separate privacy notice from that firm).
D- We will continue to observe these privacy guidelines for your information even if you are no longer a client of Hold Brothers.
E- We provide you with this notice when you open your account and we will provide annual notification thereafter.
F- Should we determine to change any of our policies concerning privacy, we will provide advance notice and give you the opportunity to “opt out” of such disclosures.
As you know, you may only access your account by entering your unique Password.
YOU SHOULD MAINTAIN YOUR PASSWORD IN A SECURE PLACE, AND NEVER SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. FAILURE TO PROPERLY SAFEGUARD YOUR
USERNAME AND PASSWORD INFORMATION OR VOLUNTARILY PROVIDING SUCH INFORMATION TO ANYONE CAN COMPROMISE THE SECURITY OF
YOUR ACCOUNT. SHOULD THERE BE ANY MISUSE OR LOSS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR FAILURE TO SAFEGUARD YOUR PASSWORD, SUCH LOSSES
CANNOT BE SOUGHT FROM THE COMPANY AND ARE EXPLICITLY RELEASED.
S. Procedures for Maintaining Privacy of Confidential Client Information
1. Limited Access to Personal and Account Information
Access to client personal and account information (including former clients) will be limited to persons and organizations (such as clearing firms) with a “need to know” the information in order to perform client services. Client information will also be furnished to agencies with authority to request or demand such information, such as the Internal Revenue Service or Securities Regulatory or self-regulatory organizations with authority over the Company; or in concert with subpoenas or orders of Court of competent jurisdiction. Records containing client information will be maintained in secure areas with restricted access.
2. Contractual Confidentiality Clauses.
In those instances where the Company is obliged to provide client information to vendors, or other unaffiliated third parties in order to procure necessary account services, associated contracts and agreements will contain clauses requiring the third parties to maintain the confidentiality of the information.
3. Opt Out Notices
In the event the Company determines to share information with unaffiliated third parties other than those permitted by requirements, clients will be given an opportunity to
opt out by completing an opt out notice. Copies of this notice will be maintained in the clients’ files and their accounts will be marked accordingly.
4. Proof of Delivery of Notice
Copies of the privacy notice will be maintained in clients’ files to demonstrate delivery to clients. In addition, clients will be requested to confirm receipt and understanding of the privacy notice (and risk disclosures) during the initial client interview. A record of the interview will be maintained in the client file.
The Operation Principal, as designated in Appendix A, is responsible for the proper disposal of customer information. To insure proper disposal the Operations Principal will shred any documentation/information with respect to a customer’s personal information after the expiration of the applicable record retention period. A log will be maintained of all documents that are disposed of as documentation and evidence of this process.
II. Customer Access to the Company’s Trading Systems
The Company may choose to provide an electronic interface for public customer orders through its order entry system. This facility will allow the Company’s customers to
enter orders into the electronic entry system, which will flow through its network and computer system and then, without manual intervention, to the clearing Company.
The following items will be addressed:
The Company will monitor the entry of customer orders (ensure that they are authorized), ensure that the orders do not exceed credit or other parameters, review customer activity which would appear to be manipulative or an attempt to improperly affect the price of the security, and ensure there are no violations of affirmative determination and the Short-Sale Rules as is detailed in the Company’s written procedures. Locations will be identified where the Company makes order entry devices available to customers. If such sites do not qualify as a branch office or office of supervisory jurisdiction, the member will still supervise such activity by periodic visits to such locations.
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Updated: December 5, 2007