Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, defended the agency's texting crackdown, stating that the SEC has found that "hundreds of people at dozens of firms were blowing right past the [off-channel communication] rules that even their firms had in place."
With the settlements, Gensler said Monday during the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's annual meeting, "we tried to move the market behavior back to the right ZIP code."
Gensler made the comments during a question-and-answer session with SIFMA CEO Ken Bentsen.
Bentsen noted that "there's a growing frustration" as broker-dealers have learned to deal with the texting crackdown, asking Gensler, Is there "just going to be a constant liability for firms?"
Gensler responded: "Books and records are really important to control the risk in your firms." While some brokers and firms are using off-channel communications for "convenience," Gensler said, others are not.
