SIPA Board Members Selling Out?
The phones and e-mails have been blowing up here at the SIPA since FINRA announced last week that they would not act on the majority of the proxy initiatives submitted by Amerivet Securities and approved by over 70% of the members. The board at FINRA is composed mostly of FINRA staff and public members who are nominated and controlled by FINRA so it was not shocking to us that once again FINRA opted to continue to operate in the shadows. What is shocking to the SIPA though is the fact that newly elected Board members that were supported and selected by the SIPA appear to have sold the small firms out.
In a recent letter from the newly elected board members, they indicated not only were 4 of the proxy initiatives rejected, but that Rick Ketchum explained why and they agree with him. The exact quote is here:
Rick outlined the Board’s reasons for not taking action on these in his September 28 email to firms. We support this decision, and in light of the reasons Rick mentions in his email, believe that action on the remaining four proxy proposals was not warranted.
That’s funny, because that’s not what was said when they were running for office. At a debate in July in which I was the moderator, all three SIPA candidates as well as Howie Spindell flat out stated they supported all the proxies and in fact Lisa Roth was the lone candidate that didn’t support all 7 of the proxies and Jed Bandes let her have it. . We are to believe that having a compensation committee approve a million dollar salary might effect the ability to regulate but receiving 9 million in deferred compensation doesn’t affect your ability to regulate? Rather then go on and on we think its in everyone’s best interest to let the newest board members know what you think. Maybe im dead wrong but these new members look and sound an awful lot like the old ones that we swept out with an overwhelming victory. As we stated before, the SIPA is dedicated to helping the small firms and registered reps survive and although we endorsed the slate we are not willing to lay idly by while they make a mockery our of 70% of the members that voted a mandate for them. Although disappointing, we have no problem admitting a mistake or fixing a problem and right now it looks as if we made a mistake. What do you think?
