Sen. Warren Leads Query to SEC, FINRA on Sexual Harassment in Finance

"The silence," the lawmakers argued, "appears to result from strong 'cultural and financial forces' in the industry that discourage speaking out, including payout of large settlements with nondisclosure agreements to harassment victims, class-action prohibitions, and forced arbitration."

The SEC's Office of Minority and Women Inclusion tasked with "assessing the diversity policies and practices of entities regulated" by the SEC, and through a set of Joint Standards issued by the office and other financial regulators in June 2015, puts OMWI in a position to provide the agencies "with unique insight into sexual harassment in the financial sector," the senators said.

The senators asked the securities regulator to answer five questions, including to lay out the steps the SEC OMWI has taken, since issuing the Joint Standards, "to encourage financial firms to institute policies and disciplinary systems that prevent inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace, including sexual harassment."

In their letter to FINRA, the lawmakers note that in the self-regulator's Dispute Resolution data, "discrimination or harassment" — a category that includes discrimination on the basis of disability, age, gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, employment discrimination, and sexual harassment — was one of the top 15 controversies listed in intra-industry FINRA cases in 2017.

Of the three questions the senators asked FINRA to answer, one was: "Of FINRA awards that went unpaid from 2010-2018, what is the dollar amount linked to arbitration awards related to workplace harassment, including sexual harassment?"