The fellows for the University of Miami Investor Rights Clinic traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with regulators from FINRA, the self-regulatory organization that oversees customer disputes with their broker-dealers. We had the opportunity to meet with representatives from FINRA’s Office of Dispute Resolution and learned more about the trends that FINRA is seeing in customer disputes. We heard from the Financial Intelligence division about the push to coordinate with the SEC’s enforcement division and FBI and target third-party fraud and pump-and-dump investment schemes that have arisen in the last few years. We discussed recent challenges to FINRA’s authority to expel members and member firms.
In the Clinic, we focus primarily on helping investors pursue arbitration against their brokers, but it was eye-opening to see all of the other work that FINRA does and its important role in creating a fair securities market than investors can meaningfully participate in. It helped us understand how the FINRA Rules have impacted results, and we had the opportunity to contribute to the conversation of how FINRA can improve its oversight and better protect investors. This allows us to better serve the clients of the Clinic and help them protect themselves from future scams or fraud. Overall, the experience deepened our knowledge of the important role that FINRA plays in the investment marketplace. With LAFAC’s support, we were able to make this trip possible, and it was an amazing experience for the clinical fellows who are now able to pass this knowledge along to the current student interns.
