The Wall Street Journal on FINRA – Asleep on Duty Again
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a front page story detailing the results of an analysis that they conducted examining the efficacy of FINRA’s monitoring of the bankruptcies and criminal charges against securities brokers. FINRA is the regulator of first resort of the brokerage industry and brokers are required to disclose to FINRA bankruptcies, and most criminal charges and convictions. Certain criminal convictions will obviously result in the loss of a securities broker’s privileges to sell securities. Bankruptcies are often a red-flag of financial duress or irresponsibility and, according to the WSJ, there is a significant correlation of bankruptcies and regulatory violations in its analysis. […]