SEC’s Gallagher Challenges Idea of FINRA as Advisor SRO

At a recent event held by the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, David Tittsworth, executive director of the Investment Adviser Association in Washington, D.C., said the debate over whether there should be an SRO for advisors–and if FINRA should be that SRO–is the “biggest issue” advisors will confront next year. While the bill from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., calling for an SRO is “dead” this year, the SRO issue will be revived next year, with new players at the SEC, in Congress and possibly in the White House, he said.

Hester Peirce, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, agreed, stating that “interest in [the SRO] idea will continue because the SEC is clearly overwhelmed and the complexity of advisors that it is now overseeing [with oversight of hedge fund advisors] will pose challenges” to the agency.