SEC Chair on the Hot Seat? Finra Scandal Could Put Her There


Veteran Bloomberg reporter Susan Antilla wonders in her latest column whether Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mary Schapiro is the right person to have at the helm of the SEC.

Back in 2006, Schapiro was the head of the National Association of Securities Dealers when the organization decided to merge its regulatory functions with the NYSE to create Finra -- the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Now a pair of Finra-member firms are suing Finra and Schapiro, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, misleading statements and unjust enrichment.

You can read the details in Antilla's story, where she notes that "Her history and two pending lawsuits, though, raise an important question for investors: Is the woman who oversees the U.S. financial markets someone willing to fudge the facts to get things done?"

But as interesting all this stuff is, the truth is that there are a ton of other reasons that Schapiro was a poor choice to head the SEC.

Back in January, veteran journalist Gary Weiss called Schapiro's appointment an "appalling endorsement of the status quo. " He argued that "The chances of Schapiro shaking things up in the securities industry -- instituting real, meaningful, desperately desired change -- are about the same as the chances you can make a black bear curtsy and serve tea. This is a terribly disappointing selection."

Mary Schapiro is a career bureaucrat who ran the self-regulatory apparatus that pretty clearly failed to effectively regulate the financial services industry. For all its tough talk, the Obama administration has been too tightly connected with Wall Street -- and taking this scandal as an opportunity to give her the boot would provide a great opportunity to bring in a serious regulator.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+6.5112,890.46
NASDAQ+11.372,927.23
S&P 500+1.991,351.95

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 08:34 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.13-0.11(-0.57)

Alcoa

10.64-0.03(-0.28)

Apple Inc

493.17+16.49(+3.46)

Google Inc 'A'

611.46+1.61(+0.26)

Bank of America

8.18+0.05(+0.62)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.96+0.34(+0.55)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.88-0.44(-0.52)

Ford

12.69-0.15(-1.17)

Citigroup

33.66-0.57(-1.67)

IBM

193.13+0.18(+0.09)

Yahoo

16.00+0.22(+1.39)

Starbucks

49.20+0.48(+0.99)

Microsoft

30.77+0.11(+0.36)

Home Depot

45.27+0.10(+0.22)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328880868314 ms.