RBC Rochdale absorbed 124 advisors from City National Rochdale in the largest single-day advisor migration of 2026, FINRA fined Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. $750,000 for failing to supervise and preserve business-related text messages for over four years, First Independence Bank assumed all deposits of the failed Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust, and 41 RIA disclosures set the January single-day record across 394 total events — the busiest day of the month by a massive margin.

RBC Rochdale Absorbs 124 City National Rochdale Advisors

RBC Rochdale, LLC absorbed 124 advisors from City National Rochdale in the largest single-day advisor migration of January 2026. The mass transfer reflects a corporate restructuring within the RBC Wealth Management and City National Bank family — RBC acquired City National Bank in 2015, and the rebranding of the advisory operation from City National Rochdale to RBC Rochdale signals a deeper integration of the Rochdale advisory platform into RBC's brand architecture.

The 124-advisor migration is a corporate action rather than competitive recruiting — the advisors are moving between affiliated entities as part of a parent-company directive. However, the scale of the migration makes it one of the largest single-day advisor moves in the Finleet Terminal's tracking history, comparable to the 198-advisor Kovitz-to-NorthCoast migration recorded on February 3.

FINRA Fines Benjamin Edwards $750K for Off-Channel Communications

FINRA fined Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. $750,000 for failing to reasonably supervise employees' use of text messaging and failing to preserve and review business-related text messages between at least October 2019 and December 2023. The firm continued these failures despite being on notice of its inability to capture business-related texts, violating Exchange Act Section 17(a), Rule 17a-4, and FINRA Rules 4511, 3110, and 2010.

The $750,000 fine is the largest single FINRA penalty of January 2026 and adds Benjamin Edwards to the growing list of broker-dealers sanctioned in the industry-wide off-channel communications enforcement sweep. The SEC and FINRA have collectively levied billions of dollars in fines against firms that failed to preserve business communications conducted through personal text messages, WhatsApp, and other unapproved platforms.

Metropolitan Capital Bank Fails; First Independence Assumes Deposits

First Independence Bank of Detroit assumed all deposits of Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust of Chicago — indicating that Metropolitan Capital was closed by regulators or entered a resolution process. Deposit assumptions occur when a failing bank's deposits are transferred to a healthy acquiring institution to protect depositors and maintain banking services. The FDIC also published its December enforcement actions compilation.

Fed Approves Cornerstone Capital Bancorp

The Federal Reserve Board approved the application by Cornerstone Capital Bancorp, Inc. — a bank holding company acquisition that allows the company to proceed with its expansion plans. The NCUA extended its deregulation project comment period to March 30, giving credit unions additional time to submit input on proposed regulatory relief.

179 Advisor Moves Shatter Every Record

The day's 179 total advisor moves — dominated by the 124-advisor RBC Rochdale migration — shattered every single-day advisor move record. Beyond the RBC migration, Martel Wealth Advisors gained six advisors, Silver Lake Advisory Partners and HCM Wealth each gained four, and Kestra Advisory Services, NewEdge Advisors, and LPL Financial each gained three. The non-RBC moves totaled 55, which alone would have been one of the highest single-day counts of January.

41 Disclosures, 33 Personnel Changes

Forty-one RIA disclosures set the January record. Thirty-three BD personnel changes, 22 registration changes, 22 executive departures, 23 new hires, 15 role changes, and six disclosure changes were recorded in the BD vertical — the most comprehensive personnel filing day of the month. Six FOCUS reports were filed.

Across the Wire

FINRA announced a new port request form for the TRACE transition to native FIX — a technical infrastructure change for bond trade reporting. The BIS published a management speech. Sixteen SEC announcements were issued. One DTCC notice was published. Two OCC branch establishments and two closings were processed. The day's 394 events were nearly four times the previous January daily record.

All data sourced from FINRA BrokerCheck, SEC EDGAR, FDIC, Federal Reserve, OCC, NCUA, NSCC/DTCC, BIS, and the Finleet Terminal as of January 30, 2026. Entity profiles are available at terminal.finleet.com.