(September 20 – 11:50 ET) – At its annual meeting in Montreal the North American Securities Administrators Association unanimously adopted a new vision statement. The vision statement acknowledges the dramatic changes reshaping the financial services industry, and commits NASAA to increase uniformity of state securities regulation and address other concerns.

Entitled “The new economy and state securities regulation,” the six-page document was voted on by the members of NASAA, who represent state and provincial securities regulators in the U.S., Canada, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Although it focuses primarily on U.S. issues including broker-dealer regulation and corporate finance issues there, it also commits to, “exploring uniform cross-border and cross-state line exemptions, so that brokers can service their customers wherever they are.” It has also committed to drafting a uniform exemption that can be adopted by each state and to “spending time in our training sessions on uniformity issues”.

NASAA says it will also work on joint enforcement projects, such as sweeps against firms and individuals committing microcap stock fraud. It calls on governments to beef up enforcement resources. “As technology changes, we need to keep pace in our responses and strategies. Many of the scams that previously relied on boiler rooms have migrated to the Internet. We need more resources to deal with this growing problem.”

NASAA’s new president, Deborah Bortner, Washington State’s Director of Securities, said, “This document is a blueprint for the changes that regulators need to make. Technology, the industry and consumer expectations are changing so fast, regulators need become even more effective, efficient and uniform.”

In testimony in early May before the Senate Banking Committee, NASAA’s former president, Bradley Skolnik, said that regulators at all levels need to “take a fresh look at what they do, how they do it and its impact on industry and consumers” in light of globalization, new electronic technologies and the record number of investors in the stock market. At that time, NASAA promised to complete and adopt a vision statement by the end of the year.
-IE Staff