Did banks cross the line in Facebook research calls?

As regulators scrutinize Facebook's problem-plagued stock market debut, they may have to confront areas of securities law that do not always clearly spell out what industry analysts are allowed to tell clients about companies on the verge of going public.

Facebook and the Wall Street banks that underwrote its $16 billion initial public offering are facing questions about how and why stock analysts decided to cut their financial forecasts on the company ahead of the IPO. An Internet analyst at lead underwriter Morgan Stanley told clients days before the offering that he had reduced his revenue projections - information that some other investors may not have received. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which were underwriters on the deal as well, also revised their estimates during Facebook's IPO road show.