September 2024 Board Meeting Update
September 27, 2024
Two new Industry Governors were recently appointed to the Board: Cyrus Amir-Mokri, General Counsel for J.P. Morgan's Commercial & Investment Bank; and Eric Schimpf, President and Co-Head of Merrill Wealth Management. Cyrus serves as the Board’s new investment company affiliate representative and Eric serves as the floor broker representative. They join two newly elected Board Governors, Jennifer Szaro, Chief Compliance Officer and a managing equity owner at XML Securities and its affiliated registered investment adviser, XML Financial Group; and John Vaccaro, Chair and CEO of MML Investors Services, Head of MassMutual Financial Advisors and Chair of MassMutual Trust Company; as well as James Crowley, CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions, and Senior Executive Vice President and Global Head of BNY Pershing, who was recently re-elected for a second term. We look forward to working with these Governors and benefitting from their experience and perspectives.
The Board discussed forthcoming Regulatory Notices, including proposed changes to FINRA’s rules promoting capital formation. The proposed changes are responsive to feedback that FINRA received to an earlier Regulatory Notice soliciting comment on potential enhancements to FINRA’s rules relating to the capital-raising process. The Board also continued discussions around FINRA’s long-term financial planning. In addition, FINRA staff presented a review of FINRA’s Enforcement Digital Transformation—which the Board approved in 2020 to modernize and enhance the systems and tools supporting the Enforcement Department’s disposition processes—and provided updates on recent market frauds and other issues in the financial crimes space.
In continuation of our engagement with key stakeholders, the FINRA Board met with leaders of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), including Securities Division Administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions Leslie Van Buskirk, who was recently elected NASAA President; Claire McHenry, Deputy Director, Securities Bureau, Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, who was the preceding NASAA President; and Vincent Martinez, the General Counsel of NASAA, to discuss how our two organizations can continue to work together toward our common goal of investor protection.
And finally, the Board held a joint reception with Chicago-area member firms as well as FINRA’s South and Mid-West Regional Committees. As a reminder, committee members play an important role informing FINRA’s regulatory programs by, among other things, alerting FINRA to industry trends that could present regulatory concerns and consulting with FINRA on proposed policies and rule changes. There is still an opportunity to indicate your interest in seeking election for seats on FINRA’s Regional Committees and Small Firm Advisory Committee (SFAC) this fall. If you are interested in participating, you have until next Thursday, Oct. 3, to submit a candidate profile form to FINRA’s Corporate Secretary. You can find the links to the respective candidate profile forms in the Regional Committees and SFAC Election Notices.
More information regarding the Board’s operations, including the membership and responsibilities of its committees, is available on our website.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Cook
FINRA CEO