(November 10 – 15:00 ET) – In his opening address to the Securities Industry Association’s annual conference in Boca Raton, Florida, chairman James Brinkley related a conversation with an unnamed Canadian investment dealer praising the SIA’s work as a trade association.

According to Brinkley, the Canadian member said, “No other country has an effective securities trade organization serving the critical needs of its members like the SIA in the U.S. Other countries must rely on their regulatory bodies. They do not have a strong organization promoting fairness, integrity, growth, civility, and cooperation among all their constituents.”

Brinkley went on to praise the SIA’s advocacy work. He invoked the words of Canadian hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, in defining the SIA’s future. Brinkley recalled Gretzky’s simplest explanation of his success, “Most players tend to skate to where the puck is, I try to skate to where the puck is going to be.”

He recommended that the securities industry must stay ahead of the play. He invoked the conference theme, “Embracing Change”. “We must continue to look ahead and identify challenges, forge consensus, develop answers, and implement solutions.”

He then pointed the conversion to T+1, improved advocacy, evolving technology, and investor education as priorities. SIA president Marc Lackritz chimed in with research that shows technology and effective international agreements have led to a dramatic increase in cross-border investment flows.

“Cross-border investing in equities doubles every three years and is rapidly approaching US$7 trillion,” Lackritz said. Over the past 10 years, U.S. gross activity in foreign securities grew at a compound annual rate of 23%, while gross foreign activity in U.S. securities increased at 17%. He warns that firms need to devote increasing amounts of capital for technology investments, as well as improve the reliability of their systems and step-up investor education to handle data flow.

“Investors continue to tell us that they need to learn more about investing and the market in general. Investors recognize the impact of market volatility and are placing a greater emphasis on having diversified portfolios. Investors’ perceptions of “big” problems for the industry have increased.”

The so-called “big” problems for the industry are that the “industry is motivated by greed”, and, “brokers or firms are putting their interest ahead of investors’ interest.” He called for investor education to combat this perception.

Lackritz added, “if we have the vision, the will, and the fortitude to embrace all these changes, the future is bright indeed.”
-IE Staff