The PCAOB looked at brokerages with net capital under SEC rules ranging from $100,000 to $120 million as of the end of 2010 or June 2011, according to the report. The firms included both those that hold customer funds and those that don't.
WJB, expelled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last week after shutting its brokerage in January, had net capital in the range examined.
"The most concerning is this lack of independence," Mark Williams, a lecturer at Boston University's School of Management, said in an interview. "A big weakness that we continue to see is that auditors come in and they trust, and they really don't focus on verify. That was one of the main findings of the weakness of the whole broker-dealer system that helped the financial crisis to be triggered."