Republican SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar made wide-ranging attacks on the agency’s enforcement priorities Tuesday morning.
Calling Democratic SEC Chairman Mary Jo White’s aim to go after rule violations no matter how small (which she calls “broken windows”), Piwowar countered, “if every rule is a priority, no rule is a priority.”
Piwowar said publicity surrounding high-dollar penalties wrongly tells commission staffers the way to achieve promotions and raises is to go after these kind of violations, when smaller fraud by individuals and companies can cause more investor harm.
As examples, he said financial reporting deception can lead to significant dollar loses for a company, but little harm to a diversified investor’s wealth. On the other hand, he noted, fraud by an advisor can wipe out a client’s entire savings.
On another issue, Piwowar said the commission needs to put more emphasis on elder financial abuse, pointing out the last time the SEC held a roundtable on the topic was in 2008.
He also called for the establishment of an ombudsman to handle complaints against the SEC by advisors and other regulated companies and professionals. The agency recently hired an ombudsman—the position was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act—to focus on problems retail investors have with the regulator.
Piwowar said he expects most of what the ombudsman will hear will be gripes about delays in processing tips and complaints against public companies and financial firms regulated by the agency.
Piwowar’s comments came at Securities Docket’s Securities Enforcement Forum 2014 in Washington D.C.