As numerous as SIFMA's comments are on FINRA's proposal, the problems with the proposal appear to be even more intractable and fundamental than addressed here. A self-regulatory organization, such as FINRA, simply should not put its members under any obligation, or seeming obligation, to violate the law by refusing to disburse money in accordance with instructions that are legally binding. This is not to deny the potential existence of a real problem concerning the need to protect senior…

The regulators were uniformly upbeat in describing their efforts at reducing the burdens imposed by regulations on community banks. It would be interesting to conduct a poll of the community banks to see whether they are equally upbeat upon this subject.

From a policy standpoint, the whistleblower law should encourage employees to report problems internally. This decision supports encouraging (or at least does not discourage) the internal reporting of problems.

While the potential authority of the CFTC to take possession of firms' algorithms has drawn most of the early attention, the burden of the compliance obligations that would be imposed by this proposal, and the subsequent risks of liability, should not be underestimated.