Increasing oversight of investment advisory firms and electronic registration of advisers are at the top of the agenda for Joseph Borg, new president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

“While the vast majority are honest professionals, the growing potential for fraud by small investment advisers should concern us all,” Borg told attendees at the Securities Industry Association`s Small Firms Conference in Ft. Lauderdale.

Borg also said he would urge state regulators to adopt the Investment Adviser Registration Depository, an electronic database similar to the Central Registration Depository, which contains information on brokers,
including disciplinary history. Information from the IARD is available to investors via the Internet, Borg noted, making it easier for them to wisely select an investment advisory firm.

He expressed concern over the growing number of independent insurance agents selling securities – such as viatical settlements and promissory notes – without a license. Many of the investments they are selling are high risk or potentially fraudulent, Borg noted. He said NASAA would work more closely
with state insurance regulators to curb the problem. Borg also said that regulators of banking, insurance and securities need to work more closely together.

“Investors are the largest constituent group in the United States today – bigger than organized labor, Democrats, Republicans, Baby Boomers, even AARP members,” Borg said. “We have a duty to serve and protect them. As regulators, our jobs have never been more important or demanding.”