Legislation was recently re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would change the decades-old securities arbitration system for dispute resolution to prohibit arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. While examining any long-standing process or regulation has its merits – and this debate has been raised repeatedly over the years – the securities arbitration system has worked effectively for decades. It is subject to public oversight, regulatory oversight by multiple independent regulators, and its rules of procedure are designed to benefit investors.

In this podcast – originally published in March 2020 – Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA’s President and CEO, and Kevin Carroll, SIFMA’s Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, discuss the long-standing system and the rather confounding animus toward it by some policymakers. They also dive more specifically into the FINRA arbitration forum, and the securities industry’s experience in that forum.

This podcast was originally recorded in 2020, and is being republished given it is an important explanation of a system that is once again being debated by Congress.

Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. is president and CEO of SIFMA, the voice of the nation’s securities industry. Kevin Carroll is Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at SIFMA