June 03,2009

Grassley Asks How FINRA Handled Allegations of Insider Trading

WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley is asking the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority – the securities industry’s own regulator – to explain how it handled allegations made in April 2008 about insider trading and other violations of the rules and regulations that govern capital markets.

“The allegations in question, if validated, would be serious violations of the law,” Grassley said. “The public needs to know that watchdogs are on the job and aggressively policing the marketplace for the good of every investor and confidence in the system. I expect to get a full accounting of what the enforcement division of FINRA did with the information it got about possible wrongdoing.”

Earlier this year, Grassley asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for the status of its investigation into the same allegations. A copy of Grassley’s February 2009 inquiry is posted with this news release at http://finance.senate.gov and http://grassley.senate.gov.

FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. According to FINRA, it oversees nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, 173,000 branch offices and 653,000 registered securities representatives.