SEC Head Honcho Backs SRO for Advisers

A proposal to turn over the supervision of financial advisers to a self-regulatory organization (SRO) gained the support of SEC Chairperson Mary Schapiro. The SEC has the resources to conduct annual examinations of only 9% of U.S. registered advisers, who number nearly 12,000, she said. “Unless there is sufficient funding for the SEC to do this, I think we ought to look very seriously at an SRO, whether it’s [the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority] or not,” she said.