<div id="subtitle">Stock regulator raises profile with ads as Congress seeks to improve financial oversight</div><div><p>A little known industry-sponsored group that oversees stock brokers is raising its profile with a national media campaign as Congress works on tightening the government's regulation of banks and other financial service providers.</p><p>The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, is running a series of TV, radio and Internet commercials promoting its work on protecting investors from unscrupulous brokers.</p><p>FINRA spokesman Howard Schloss said the campaign had been planned "for quite a while," and was geared toward educating investors. But he said the ads target policymakers as well, even as the agency angles for a more prominent role in regulating Wall Street.</p><p>"I think it is important for everyone, investors and policymakers, to know about FNRA and what we do," Schloss said.</p><p>Government regulators, as well as industry self-regulators such as FINRA, have been criticized for not doing more to prevent the financial collapse on Wall Street.</p><p>The two-year old authority was formed through a consolidation of the National Association of Securities Dealers and portions of New York Stock Exchange's regulatory arm.</p><p>FINRA oversees nearly 4,900 brokerage firms, and is funded entirely by the fees they pay, Schloss said. By contrast, the government's Securities and Exchange Commission oversees more than 11,000 investment advisers.</p><p>Richard G. Ketchum, FINRA's chairman and CEO, has told Congress that his group provides a good model for improving oversight of investment advisers.</p><p>FINRA's radio and TV ads started running last month and will continue into the fall, Schloss said. This is the third year the agency has run educational ads, he said, though this year's commercials have a more serious tone because of the financial crisis.</p><p>The TV ads are running on national cable news and specialty channels and the radio ads are on several national networks.</p><p>"We're here to protect investors from fraud and bad practices," a narrator says in one of three radio commercials the agency is running. "Last year, we barred hundreds of brokers from the industry and returned more than $1 billion to investors."</p><p>"If brokers break the rules, we can find them, suspend them, even put them out of business," says another ad. "That's our job."</p><p>All three radio ads are duplicated for TV, with video added. They all direct investors to the agency's Web site.</p><p>Schloss would not disclose how much money was spent on the ads but called them a "modest" buy. The agency has also produced an hour-long video on preventing investment fraud.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>FINRA: http://www.finra.org</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=55502130&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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