The vast difference in the risk assessments promulgated by FSOC under the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration illustrates (regardless of which view any individual favors) the fact that FSOC serves no useful purpose.

The "theory" behind the creation of the organization as part of Dodd-Frank was that an agency that represented each of the major U.S. financial regulators could better assess large-scale risks than could any individual agency. However, because FSOC is largely…

There is zero logic to the penalty amounts that FINRA imposes on individuals. The broker clearly violated the rules, so there is no defense to that. But it is not clear why his fines should equal those of brokers who effectively steal significant amounts of money from customers.  

Failure to supervise off-channel communications cases are fairly straightforward. This case is notable in that the supervisory and recordkeeping failures are tied to another material violation: the failure to produce required documents imposed in an arbitration.  

It is difficult to say whether this no-action letter is "significant." On the one hand, no one in the market believes that the answer is anything other than the one that the SEC gave. That said, if the SEC had given a different answer, the SEC would have blown up a good part of the financial markets. So, disaster avoided; in that sense, the letter is significant.