Richard Ketchum Has to Answer for His Past

That's the title of a really excellent blog post today by securities lawyer Bill Singer. A link to it is here.

Ketchum has been nominated to replace Mary Schapiro, President Obama's questionable choice as SEC chairman, to head FINRA. As Bill points out in his blog, Ketchum, who served briefly as a Citigroup attorney as well as a lengthy regulatory career, is hardly a dream candidate for the job:

Unfortunately, it is his "vision" for regulation that forces me to pause. FINRA proposes to hand its helm over to a former Citigroup insider -- these days, not exactly a credential to inspire confidence (although Ketchum's tenure there was notably short). Moreover, Ketchum is yet another one of those former SEC-former NASD-former NASDAQ types who had many, many opportunities to reform our failed regulatory system and either chose to perpetuate it or simply lacked the ideas and will to accomplish the task. I do not believe that you can undertake the necessary overhaul of Wall Street's failed regulatory system by merely recycling old faces and ideas. Regrettably, that is how I see Ketchum.

It's a long and detailed examination of Ketchum's record that should be read carefully.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.