Agenda Offers Roadmap for 113th Congress to Promote Investor Confidence
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 5, 2013 – The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) today unveiled an aggressive advocacy agenda calling for affirmative Congressional action to promote investor confidence.
During a news conference at the National Press Club, NASAA President and Arkansas Securities Commissioner Heath Abshure and Steve Irwin, NASAA President-elect and Pennsylvania Banking and Securities Commissioner, also outlined five specific areas in which they will seek Congressional action in the 113th Congress.
“To help Main Street investors and businesses recover from the recession and financial crisis, we encourage the 113th Congress to focus its oversight and legislative energies on legislation that better protects investors and promotes economic growth,” Abshure said. “Our agenda provides the new Congress with a roadmap to promote investor confidence by striking the most reasonable balance between promoting capital formation and protecting investors.”
Abshure and Irwin said NASAA actively will seek legislation in four specific areas, including legislation to:
- authorize the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations to collect user fees from the investment advisers it examines;
- permit reasonable civil recovery for fraud associated with crowdfunding and other small offerings;
- strengthen investor protection provisions weakened by the JOBS Act to minimize the Act’s enormous potential for abuse; and
- empower state regulators to curtail the use of mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses in contracts between state-registered investment advisers and their clients.
NASAA also is calling on Congress to investigate opaque market activities, including those of “dark pools,” hedge funds and high-frequency traders.
“Taken together, the legislative priorities we have outlined today represent positive and progressive changes for the benefit of Main Street investors. They seek to level the playing field for investors by increasing industry and market accountability and transparency, balancing the capital formation needs of small business with strong investor protection, and providing a fair avenue for redress when things go wrong,” Irwin said.
“NASAA is committed to working with the Obama Administration and the 113th Congress to ensure that our nation’s system of financial services regulation promotes the investor confidence necessary to support a strong U.S. capital market,” Abshure said.
NASAA, the oldest international organization devoted to investor protection. NASAA’s membership consists of the securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the provinces and territories of Canada, and Mexico.
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Bob Webster | Director of Communications
202-737-0900
