A new D.C.-based regulatory organization launched operations Monday to oversee the activities of securities brokers and dealers.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which was formed by consolidating NASD Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange, was created to stop the duplication the two agencies created.
“It was an inconvenience for firms because each had two separate rule books they had to deal with, two sets of compliance requirements, two enforcement departments and so on,” spokesman Herb Perone said. “Just the technology involved had to be duplicated.”
The group is going through the rule books governing both organizations to come up with a single set of regulations by which all U.S. firms doing public securities must abide.
FINRA?s job will be to write rules, examine firms, and arbitrate and mediate disputes, Perone said, as well as regulate the market for Nasdaq, the American Stock Exchange, the International Securities Exchange and the Chicago Climate Exchange.
The combined authority now becomes the industry?s largest nongovernmental regulatory organization. It will be headquartered in D.C., with a major office in New York and 15 district offices, and employ 3,000 people, Perone said.
