NASAA Report Details Investor Protection Role of State Securities Regulators

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") began soliciting responses to its annual enforcement survey in March 2012. This year, 48 U.S. NASAA members responded to the survey request, a response rate of 94 percent. NASAA reported a significant increase in enforcement actions against investment adviser firms last year and a sharp rise in prison time for securities law violators. According to the survey, the number of enforcement actions involving investment adviser firms nearly doubled to 399 in 2011, and accounted for 15 percent of all enforcement actions handled by state securities regulators.

Heath Abshure, NASAA President and Arkansas Securities Commissioner, stated that the report "demonstrates that investors continue to rely upon state securities regulators." The majority of the investment fraud cases reported by state securities regulators featured unregistered individuals selling unregistered securities. More than 800 reported actions involved unregistered securities, and more than 800 actions involved unregistered firms or individuals.

View report in full here (links externally to NASAA website).