Richard G. Ketchum, the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), said that he would ramp up scrutiny of high-speed trading and a batch of complex products, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. FINRA, Ketchum said, would take aim at so-called leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations, along with the potential conflicts that brokerage firms face in pitching their own investments over rivals' products. FINRA added that it would "pursue potential cross-market abuses and refine its surveillance patterns based on new threat scenarios and regulatory intelligence." The expanded focus comes as FINRA announced yesterday that it filed more than 1,500 enforcement actions against financial firms and brokers in 2012, an all-time record for the regulator.
