Finra has appointed a high-profile critic of the DOL's fiduciary rule to its board of governors.
Timothy C. Scheve, president and CEO of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC and a former chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), was picked to fill a "large firm" seat on the board.
Scheve was appointed to complete the term of John W. Thiel, a former Merrill Lynch CEO, who left the board earlier this year.
Scheve became Janney's president and CEO in August 2007 and has more than 30 years of experience in the securities industry.
"Finra performs an important role not only in safeguarding the markets but also facilitating a vibrant securities industry,” said Scheve. "I am excited about the opportunity to support that work as a member of the Finra board."
As Sifma chairman in 2016, Scheve said he was in favor of having the SEC, not the DOL, write “best-interest” rules governing brokers’ sales practices.
“Unfortunately, while the SEC deliberated over how best to write such a rule, the Department of Labor chose to intercede with its own regulatory standard affecting retirement accounts only, and the millions of investors who use an IRAs or a 401(k) plan as a retirement savings vehicle,” Scheve said at a Sifma conference in 2016.
Before joining Janney, Scheve held a variety of leadership roles at Legg Mason, including executive vice president beginning in 1998 and senior executive vice president in 2000. He was president and CEO of Legg Mason's broker-dealer–the former Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc.–beginning in 2003. Prior to that, he was a senior consultant for the Management Information Consulting Group of Price Waterhouse & Co.
Scheve obtained a bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Catholic University and a master's degree in economics from Brown University.
"Finra will benefit greatly from Tim's insights regarding the firms and markets we regulate as we advance our mission of investor protection and market integrity," said Finra CEO Robert Cook.