Big rise in Finra lobbying $$$

Finra hiked its lobbying expenditures in the first quarter of this year. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. spent $300,000 over that period lobbying Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a disclosure report Finra filed late last week. Last year, the self-regulator spent $170,000 to $220,000 per quarter on lobbying. The financial industry as a whole spent $27 million during the first three months of the year on lobbying, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data provided by The Center for Responsive Politics. That overall amount was the second-highest ever, according to the Journal, which tracked spending by 26 of the financial firms and trade associations that spent the most on lobbying last year. The continued growth in lobbying expenditures by the industry comes as regulators implement the massive Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the paper reported Friday. Finra itself began lobbying lawmakers and the SEC on the implementation of Dodd-Frank late last year. Separately, last month, former Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, registered as a lobbyist for Finra. Mr. Oxley, former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, is now a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP. Finra paid Mr. Oxley $50,000 in the first quarter, according to a lobbying report he filed last week. Among other issues, Finra has been lobbying to become the self-regulator for investment advisers.