Finra outsider elected to seat on appeals board

Karen Fischer, a Boca Raton, Fla., compliance consultant, has won a small-firm seat on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.'s appeals board. She beat David Sobel, general counsel at Abel/Noser Corp., for the spot on Finra's National Adjudicatory Council. Mr. Sobel was nominated by Finra's nominating committee. Ms. Fischer successfully petitioned member firms to get on the ballot as a challenger. “I hope I can work with Finra to help the investing public and get regulation on the right track,” she said. Ms. Fischer “worked very, very hard to leverage” her position as an outsider, said Alan Davidson, founder of Zeus Securities Inc. and the Independent Broker-Dealers Association Inc., which supported Ms. Fischer. Mr. Davidson holds the contested NAC seat; his term ends at the end of the year. Ms. Fischer will serve a three-year term beginning in January. Small broker-dealers, who are upset with regulatory burdens and past Finra management, are “like the tea party — they don't want anyone who's been involved before” with Finra, said Mr. Sobel, who sits on the small-firm advisory board. He also said his candidacy was hurt by Finra rules that don't let a nominating-committee candidate contact member firms until after the 45-day period in which a challenger has to collect petitions. Mr. Davidson and Mr. Sobel think that Finra should stop nominating small-firm candidates for NAC elections and allow anyone who gathers enough signatures on a petition to run. Mr. Sobel also thinks that Finra should shorten the voting period to two weeks, from 30 days, to minimize the stream of campaign messages.