May 18, 2016
The purpose of this letter is to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission with comments on the above referenced proposed rule change which was filed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) on May 3, 2016.
I am an attorney whose practice is exclusively devoted to the representation of individual and institutional investors in their disputes with the securities industry. Moreover, I am a former President and current Director Emeritus of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA), am the former Chairman of FINRAs National Arbitration and Mediation Committee (NAMC), am the current Chairman of FINRAs Discovery Task Force Committee (DTFC) and am a former member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) Modernization Task Force.
It is my personal opinion that the proposed amendments to Rules 12904 of the FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes and Rule 13904 of the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes, which would provide that, absent specification to the contrary in an award, when arbitrators order opposing parties to pay each other damages, the monetary awards shall offset, and the party that owes the larger amount shall pay the net difference, is a fair, equitable and reasonable approach and should be approved by the SEC on an expedited basis.
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to submit my comments on this rule filing.