Finra executive vice president of regulatory operations Susan Axelrod acknowledged that the agency is considering whether to post brokers' Series 7 scores on its BrokerCheck Web site available to the public. However, she conceded that it was by no means certain that Finra would proceed with the idea.
Asked by Financial Services Institute CEO Dale Brown at the association's second annual FInancial Advisor Summit is Washington about the subject, Axelrod said that FInra was engaged in a detailed look at the "correlations" between Series 7 scores and other factors. She never expanded upon what specific factors Finra was studying for correlations.
A lawyer by training, Axelrod conceded it was a highly sensitive subject. "People don't take the test to get an A+," she said. "They take it to pass. I wanted to pass the bar, not get a perfect score."
Axelrod added that she didn't have much confidence that investors cared "about what people got on a test 20 years ago."
Asked about a rising wave of sanctions, Axelrod said that Finra doesn't intentionally seek simply to get more money from brokerage firms. "We're looking more at serious infractions over a systemic period, [particularly] where there may have been warnings," she said, adding that Finra prefers big restitutions that return money to injured investors over big fines.
Regarding other regulatory subjects, Axelrod said Finra was revisiting the $100 gift and gratuity threshold for the amount of gifts brokers can accept from product sponsors. Some have argued that the threshold is too low, while others have maintained it should be principle based.
Finra has also received feedback that its rules on predictions are too restrictive and was looking at ways it might modify them.
Finra Exec: Agency Is Studying Series 7 Scores, Correlations
October 1, 2014
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Comments
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If there is a correlation between so-called financial advisors/ers Series 7 test scores and regulatory events and/or customer disputes, then those test scores and the correlation definitely should be loudly and thoroughly disclosed to protect the savings of hardworking Americans. If FINRA wants people to employ a so-called financial advisor/er (that's a product peddler, right?) and invest their hard-earned savings, then FINRA should do whatever it takes to prove to those hardworking Americans that so-called financial advisors/ers (product peddlers) are worthy of the investing public's trust. No Reform No Trust. I'm going to make an educated guess and say that the lower the test score the more likely there will be regulatory events and/or customer disputes. Am I right, Susan Axelrod? 110% Transparency starts Now! Don't hide the facts--the correlations--from the 53 million investing households that you profess to protect.
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I heard that Axelrod's salary was $975,000. Doesn't that seem like a lot for a regulator of an SRO?
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I guess that, in the future, someone will be posting our doctor's medical exam scores, attorney's bar exam scores, and our President's law school grades?