Finra hires big gun to lobby for adviser SRO

Michael Oxley, the former congressman who co-wrote the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has registered as a lobbyist for Finra to promote its campaign to become the self-regulator of investment advisers. Mr. Oxley, a partner at Baker Hostetler LLP, registered this month as a lobbyist for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., saying that he will work on securities regulation and the “harmonization of regulation of broker-dealers and investment advisers,” according to his registration form. Finra oversees about 4,560 brokerage firms and is interested in expanding to investment advisers. Finra contends that the Securities and Exchange Commission should appoint a self-regulatory organization to take over examinations of investment advisers. A January SEC study mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act suggested using SROs as an option to increase adviser oversight. Congress hasn't yet authorized the SEC to make a rule. Mr. Oxley, 67, an Ohio Republican who was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and also is a senior board adviser at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., didn't respond to a request for comment. When he registered March 5 as a lobbyist, he included as an associate Peggy Peterson, his former communications director on Capitol Hill, who also now works at Baker Hostetler. Nancy Condon, a Finra spokeswoman, declined to comment about Mr. Oxley's hiring. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in the wake of the Enron Corp. accounting scandal, was designed to protect investors from fraudulent corporate accounting.