Briefly

A former brokerage and its owner must repay nearly $1.1 million in lost savings to nine investors who claimed they were never told it could be risky to buy government-backed bonds with borrowed funds, a National Assn. of Securities Dealers panel ruled.

Arbitrators awarded the damages against Long Securities Corp., a defunct Glendale firm that specialized in government-backed mortgage securities, and its owner, Lawrence S. Jay. Jay’s attorney, H. Thomas Fehn, couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Heavy mortgage prepayments in 1998 cut the value of certain securities issued by the Government National Mortgage Assn. by about 5%, a loss magnified to 20% for the investors because so many of the bonds were purchased on margin in their accounts, said Montgomery Griffin, a Newport Beach consultant who advised the investors.