Ms. Peirce is a regulator who embraces a willingness to accept a measure of risk with the confidence that innovation and risk-taking result in progress, with failures along the way. Her speech is a welcome break from the onslaught of rule proposals. (See also )  

FINRA's statement is an illustration of the risks that FINRA is assuming (on the market's behalf) by collecting and consolidating so much information through CAT.  

As Congress considers the proper role of securities exchanges, now is not the time for the SEC to rush through a rule making that "interprets" the definition of the term in the Securities Exchange Act in a manner that would expand its reach. See . If the SEC believes that the 90-year-old definition is insufficient in its scope, the SEC should go to Congress and testify as to changes it believes are necessary.  

This issue has not attracted as much attention as the SEC's numerous other rule proposals. That said, the SEC's monitoring of proxy voting, and its ongoing warnings of enforcement action for what it determines to be improper voting, seem to be a potentially significant expansion of regulatory authority.

As suggested by this report, if the SEC deems a proxy vote to be out of line with ESG mandates, it may take enforcement action against an adviser. Given that position, how is…