Sense on Cents

In an attempt to draw further attention to the questions of serious ethical issues in and around Wall Street’s self-regulatory organization FINRA, I am highlighting a comment left at Sense on Cents the other day. While protecting the identity of this individual for obvious reasons, I can vouch for the fact that this person works for a FINRA member firm and was present during the road shows promoting the merger of the NASD and NYSE Regulation to form FINRA.

I commend this individual for speaking out. I second the call to fully investigate the FINRA executives involved in the very formation of this organization and then the manner in which it was run.

FINRA and its board need to be compelled to fully open the books and records of this organization and its predecessors. Only then might America learn the answers to the following questions: 

1. Did Mary Schapiro and her fellow FINRA executives lie verbally and in the proxy statement for the formation of FINRA?

2. Did FINRA have an investment in Bernie Madoff directly or indirectly?

3. Did FINRA knowingly and intentionally front run the then failing auction-rate securities market in mid-2007?

…and so much more.

I commend Disenchanted for sharing her thoughts and feelings.  There are thousands of others equally disenchanted who also want transparency from FINRA. On that note, I am happy to further highlight this comment left at Sense on Cents this past Saturday.

Disenchanted
February 13, 2010 at 11:32 PM

When is the truth going to prevail. It
was quite obvious during the road shows
that there were many “untruths” being
told.The Board needs to open the doors
and consider all allegations, not just
compensation. I guess that since there
are no Supervisory procedure manuals or
AML procedures, or 3012, or 2011 filings,
there is nothing for them to look at. After
all, during an audit, those are the most
important things. Paying attention to
whistle blowers, or looking for phoney
trading is not important, especially
if you are one of the good old boys. Stop
picking on the little guy and go after
the real criminals. A good place to
start would be with the executives (pastof
and present) of Finra and then work
down the ladder.

LD
February 14, 2010 at 6:42 AM

Disenchanted,

Your comment is very strong and I am deeply appreciative of your sharing it here.

It seems rather obvious that you were present during the road shows when Schapiro et al were making the case for the successful merger of NASD with NYSE Regulation to form FINRA. Your assessment of many ‘untruths’ during the road shows screams for further exploration. Here’s hoping the present lawsuits and complaints against FINRA will be successful in exposing the inner workings and operations, both past and present, of FINRA. Let the chips fall where they may.

Your comment on the good old boy network is also consistent with those who believe Bernie Madoff was so closely aligned with those inside FINRA (previously NASD) that he was able to operate effectively without oversight.

Your summary as far as starting by investigating the executives of FINRA, past and present, and then going from there is in sync with the lawsuits brought on behalf of Standard Investment Chartered and Amerivet Securities.

Sense on Cents will continue to address the lack of transparency in this organization, FINRA, and I strongly encourage you to spread the word. Please have friends and colleagues also leave their thoughts and comments here as well. Sense on Cents is beholden to nothing more than the virtues of truth, transparency, and integrity throughout our system so we can all most effectively navigate the economic landscape.

I thank you and commend you.

Thoughts, comments always appreciated.

LD

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 7:53 AM and is filed under FINRA, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.