NEW YORK, Dec. 18, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EQUITIES Magazine, a financial news provider that serves a global community of retail and institutional investors, would like to congratulate Mary Schapiro on her appointment to head the Securities and Exchange Commission by President-elect Barack Obama. EQUITIES had the privilege of interviewing Schapiro for the cover story of the September 2007 issue (http://www.equitiesmagazine.com/interview_mary_shapiro.php).
The following is an excerpt from the interview:
EQUITIES: What do you think the country gets right about regulation, and what do we get wrong? Schapiro: I think what we get right is our focus on investor protection and market integrity. The industry as well as the regulators care that the markets operate with integrity. That's not to say there aren't people who abuse that all the time. Fundamentally, however, the industry and regulators are aligned in that we realize that the markets are a national asset and they must operate with integrity in order to effectively channel capital to businesses that deserve it. More often than not, I believe that we get the balance right between investor protection and regulatory burden versus the ability and the need for firms to compete and innovate. We don't always get that balance correct, and when we don't, we have a system that corrects the problem. The pendulum does swing too far sometimes, but it generally corrects itself in a relatively short period of time and we get back on track to a healthy balance between the competing interests in the market.
Schapiro is currently the chief executive officer of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities and brokerage industry's self-policing organization. She previously was chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and served for six years as an SEC commissioner under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.
Schapiro is a securities industry regulator with extensive experience in Washington. She would become the first woman to head the agency, established in the 1930s in the tumult of the Great Depression.
Though the task she now faces may be a significant challenge, EQUITIES is confident Schapiro is prepared to lead the SEC through the current market crisis.
While these are certainly unprecedented times for the financial industry and the nation as a whole, EQUITIES believes that opportunities can still be found through education and innovation, concepts that the publication attempts to encapsulate with its content. In an effort to continue its legacy of empowering and encouraging investors, EQUITIES would like to offer a complimentary issue of EQUITIES Magazine (http://www.equitiesmagazine.com/pr).
About EQUITIES Magazine
Since 1951, EQUITIES Magazine has served retail and institutional investors by examining industry trends, analyzing strategies and opportunities, and profiling financial leaders and emerging public companies. In recent years, we have expanded our editorial focus to include a wide range of issues that affect investors worldwide. Our global audience has increased dramatically through EQUITIES Europe, EQUITIES Digital, and our website, which provides free real-time market quotes and a free customizable, real-time portfolio-management interface. Now EQUITIES is one of only a select group of publications available on the Apple iPhone.
Since 1981, EQUITIES Corporate Conferences have been staples within the industry, pairing the most exciting emerging companies in the world with sophisticated audiences of institutional and private investors. EQUITIES has provided a voice and an audience to leaders in the global financial community for 57 years, and we remain the definitive investor's tool.
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