Comment Text:
I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the above-referenced proposed Adoption of Revised Registration Form 7R.
In the section of the Form 7R titled Disciplinary Information-Regulatory Disclosures, this proposal adds a new question to existing Question E (i.e. “...have failed to supervise another person’s activities under any investment-related statute or regulation there under?”)
This new Question E is duplicative of the first bullet under this question (i.e. “...have violated any provision of any investment-related statute or regulation there under”). In other words, if a Registrant failed to supervise another person’s activities under any investment-related statute or regulation thereunder, the Registrant would currently be required to answer yes to the first bullet point under Question E as well as provide a summary and a copy of the documents as required by the Form 7R.
The Federal Register proposal states the following reason for adding this new Question:
“The new question is intended to ensure complete disclosure of conduct that may result in a refusal or limitation on registration.”
The new proposed Question E does not require any new additional information, as a Registrant is already required to disclose any failure to supervise sanctions under the first bullet point under Question E. In addition, this new question would cause considerable confusion among the Registrants as to which bullet points under Question E they would be required to answer "yes" to and it would not result in any additional information being provided.
I would like to respectfully point out that if the Commission and/or the NFA wanted to ensure complete disclosure of conduct you may want to consider amending Question G by deleting a portion of that question that only requires disclosure of self-regulatory organizations actions “that prevented or restricted the firm’s ability to engage in any business in the financial services industry.” For example, the vast majority of FINRA actions (referred to as Acceptance Waiver and Consents or "AWC") result in a Censure and a Fine and do NOT prevent or restrict the firm’s ability to engage in any business in the financial services industry. Accordingly, the typical FINRA AWC (for those dual registrants) is not required to be disclosed on Form 7R and as a result the Commission/NFA does not have complete disclosure of a Registrant's conduct.
I appreciate the opportunity to provide these comments and would be happy to discuss them further at your convenience.
Thank you,
James L. Simon
