oops, messed up the link. it should be fixed now.
My understanding is that U5 is a form that banks file when letting go of an employee.
In theory, it helps prevent unethical people from getting hired, but in can be used vindictively.
Here is the
episode about that.
"ARNOLD: All banks could use this database. They could fill out a little note on a troublesome or maybe a dishonest employee. Not every employee at a bank, by the way, has to have a U5, but the ones who handle investments do, and there's a lot of them.
SMITH: And the next bank could just check out the U5 before they hire someone, read with the last bank wrote and make their decision. Essentially, it set up a system whereby the banks were policing themselves.
SMITH: So this is the way it was supposed to work - a simple reporting tool for good banks to stop bad employees. But what happens when the bank itself becomes the problem, when there are bad managers? This is what we're hearing happened at Wells Fargo. The U5 became a weapon, a way to threaten and punish employees."