A former client may soon lose its top officer to the coalescing Obama administration. Mary Shapiro, current CEO of the Finance Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), has been nominated to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Who is FINRA?
FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. We oversee nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, 172,000 branch offices and 665,000 registered securities representatives. Our chief role is to protect investors by maintaining the fairness of the U.S. capital markets. — finra.org Homepage
This is good news to me, just like Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu’s appointment to head the Energy Department. Shapiro promises to be a tough enforcer, something sorely lacking these last eight years. I’d happily authorize her to use water boarding and extraordinary rendition on these billionaire market fundamentalists whose financial terrorism has left the entire world in chaos.
This may also be good news for FINRA. I sincerely hope there’s a broader role for them in the post-market-fundamentalism finance ecology, regulating a broader range of investments and having a bigger stick by forwarding cases to a more aggressive SEC. They should also get some of the funds being flung around to expand their capabilities. That’s a better investment than dropping $25 billion on Bank of America, no questions asked.