Memo to Obama: Mary Schapiro is not 'change' at the SEC


Isn't it finally time to put someone in charge of the SEC who really cares about investors?

There are many well qualified candidates. Here are a few suggestions:

William Galvin: The highly respected Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has taken on the industry and recovered millions of dollars of damages for aggrieved investors.

Joe Borg: Executive Director of the Alabama Securities Commission. Mr. Borg has a stellar record of protecting the interests of investors in Alabama.

Andrew Cuomo: The Attorney General of New York. He knows the industry and has shown great tenacity in exposing the recent fraud involving Auction Rate Bonds and other misdeeds.

Mary Schapiro, who is President-elect Obama's choice, has spent her career protecting the securities industry from investors.


Ms. Schapiro is the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an industry organization that engages in self-regulation. It hasn't done a very good job, as recent events demonstrate.

FINRA administers the mandatory arbitration system, which forces investors to arbitrate all disputes with its members (virtually all brokerage firms in the U.S.). The arbitration rules are established by FINRA and supervised by the SEC. These tribunals have a well-documented (pdf) anti-investor bias. Investors who have been victimized by their brokers are often re-victimized by these panels.

Secretary Galvin testified before Congress that FINRA panels represented "an industry sponsored damage-containment and control program masquerading as a juridical proceeding."

With Mary Schapiro as SEC Chief, the fox will be guarding the hen house. In this case, instead of hens, it is investor rights that are at stake.

This is not "change." It is Washington business as usual.

Dan Solin is the author of Does Your Broker Owe You Money? (Perigee Books 2006), The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee Books, 2006) and The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee Books, 2008)

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