The U.S. Securities Industry Association says that broker complaint statistics are misleading.

Although the Securities and Exchange Commission reports more than 81,500 complaints in 2000, up 10% from 1999, the SIA says that two-thirds of these are simply questions to the SEC, not formal complaints.

Actual complaints are up 44% from 1995 to 2000 says the SIA, to 27,920. But it points out that this growth has come as the SEC has introduced an online complaint feature, which makes it much easier to complain. Also, average daily trading volume is up 371% in the same time, and trades executed are up 671%.

Furthermore, the SIA says that complaint stats include both operational complaints, such as problems with account statements; and broker complaints, such as unauthorized trading.

It says that the only real growth in complaints has been on the operational side, while sales practice complaints have actually declined over the last five years.

Similarly, the SIA argues that the number of arbitration cases filed has been overstated. it notes that only a fraction of arbitration complaints actually come from retail investors, most are intra-industry beefs. It says that of 6,156 complaints filed, only 866 involved clear retail claims, those worth less than US%25,000.