The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division will be more aggressive in the next couple of years with efforts to bar securities law violators from financial firms.
The SEC will use its powers under The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to bar advisors and other financial professionals that are "bad actors" from investment advisory firms, broker-dealers, municipal securities dealers, municipal advisors, transfer agents and credit rating agencies, the unit’s co-chief George Canellos said Friday.
Before Dodd-Frank was signed into law in 2010, Canellos said, the SEC could only prohibit securities law violators from working in the kind of entity where they worked at the time of the infraction. But under Dodd-Frank, the SEC is able to impose "collateral bars," which prohibit a violator from associating with firms in other parts of the financial industry.
Canellos said the enforcement division has already instituted many such bars. He made the announcement at a Practising Law Institute day-long seminar on securities enforcement trends in New York.