(New York)

The Broker Protocol just suffered another loss. Despite Merrill Lynch deciding to stay in the agreement, the loss of Morgan Stanley and UBS appeared too much of an enticement, and Citigroup has now departed. Citigroup has about 1,000 advisors across the country, and the bank says that leaving the Protocol will allow them to “continue to invest in our growing team of award-winning financial advisers”.

FINSUM: So MS, UBS, and Citigroup are now gone, with ML and Raymond James saying they will stay in. One side is eventually going to win. We think the leavers will eventually cause MS and RJ to leave.