(September 28 – 12:45 ET) –
The North American Securities
Administrators Association may
create an investor education centre
to help cut down on fraud, the new
president of the association told
the annual conference.
Bradley Skolnik, Indiana’s
securities commissioner, said the
explosion of retail investing and
technology have given rise to more
financial fraud, and yet financial
literacy among the population
remains unacceptably low.
“In the end, a well-educated
investor is the best protection
against financial predators,” he
said, proposing the creation of an
Investor Education section within
the NASAA.
The NASAA needs to do a better
job of telling investors to make
more use of the Central
Registration Depository, a
database in the U.S. that contains
the licensing and disciplinary
histories on nearly 600,000
securities professionals and 5,600
securities firms. He proposed that
brokerage firms themselves
encourage potential clients to
make use of CRD.
Regulators need to do a better
job of collaborating to watch for
cyberspace fraud, and a host of
other technology related issues
such as the question of suitability
rules in a world of online brokers.
To this end, Skolnick proposed
that the NASAA sponsor a
“Suitability Summit” in
Washington in November, to
develop a new paradigm of
suitability.
IE Staff
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