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Released: August 05, 2010

Insecure about securities? Lawmakers hope studies will help

Source: Michelle Singletary, Washington Post (Free Registration)

Within the massive financial reform package is a requirement for no fewer than seven studies intended to help protect individual investors.

They fall under a subsection of the act devoted to improving the regulation of securities. I’ll be writing about various aspects of the new law in future columns, and now I’m focusing on the vast amount of research it requires.

Broadly defined, the law establishes an investment advisory committee, intended to “protect investor interest” and “promote investor confidence and the integrity of the securities marketplace.” If the federal agencies charged with investor protection had been more watchful and had aggressively enforced existing laws before the financial crisis struck, we might not be in this mess. But there’s no use grousing about money already lost.

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