With ads, FINRA hopes BrokerCheck becomes go-to site, like Yelp

With a new ad campaign, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority hopes its BrokerCheck website will become a customer’s first stop, like Yelp for diners or Angie’s List for home owners, before they invest with a financial adviser. The Wall Street watchdog, known as FINRA, launched the campaign Monday with 15-second commercials depicting people making big decisions without doing their homework, in a bid to promote its years-old website that provides free information about brokers’ employment history, credentials and customer complaints.

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China’s ‘Internet police’ open a window on Web censorship

The branch of China's police in charge of censoring “illegal and harmful” online information will make its efforts more visible to the public from Monday with the launch of their own social media accounts, the Ministry of Public Security said. The Chinese government aggressively censors the Internet, blocking many sites it deems could challenge the rule of the Communist Party or threaten stability, including popular Western sites like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, as well as Google Inc's main search engine and Gmail service

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Charter Communications nears $55 billion deal for Time Warner Cable – sources

Time Warner Cable Inc is nearing an agreement to be acquired by smaller peer Charter Communications Inc for about $55 billion, combining the second and third largest U.S. cable operators, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. A deal would create a major rival to Comcast Corp, the biggest operator in the U.S.

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