The Wall Street Simulacrum of Regulation (Now Online and in Video Format)

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GFLEC launched in 2011 at the George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C. Since then, it has pioneered breakthrough tools to measure financial literacy, developed and advised on educational programs, and crafted policy guidelines aimed at advancing financial knowledge in the United States and around the globe.

"New Research: Many U.S. Regulators With Low Regulatory Literacy Levels Are Ill Equipped to Manage Regulatory Matters, Especially Those Involving Investments" (The Bill Singer International Institute of Financial Regulatory Excellence and Vegan Gelateria Foundation / Press Release / October 14, 2019). 

WALL STREET - Many U.S. regulators with "alarmingly low" levels of regulatory knowledge lack confidence in their ability to meet their regulatory goals, according to new research conducted by The Bill Singer International Institute of Financial Regulatory Excellence and Vegan Gelateria Foundation (the "BSIIOFREAVGF").

"Regulators are seeing a rapid evolution of the regulatory landscape, from the introduction of more complex regulatory products and instruments to a fundamental shift in the retirement system that places responsibility for saving and investing squarely on the shoulders of individual Americans," said Bill Singer, founder of the non-existent  BSIIOFREAVGF. "Fewer regulators today have defined regulatory agendas and the rise of financial fraud requires an understanding of regulatory markets and basic finance that many regulators lack." 

The BSIIOFREAVGF study titled, New Evidence on the Regulatory Knowledge and Characteristics of Regulators, examined many regulators, both living and only-recently deceased, and some who had not died but whose birth was disputed. Regulators were categorized into two segments, workplace-only regulators (those who only sit at a desk in their organization's office and never go into the outside world) and active regulators (those who go into the field but sometimes get stuck in traffic or call in sick to binge watch a popular television series), though the study also included non-regulators for comparison purposes.

Workplace-only regulators had a docket of matters obtained only through their employers, and did not have any other type of matters or any other regulatory investments to investigate in stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other securities. Active regulators had a docket of matters they had obtained by themselves and/or from whistleblowers alerting them to regulatory issues with investments in stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other securities, though most also had matters provided by their employer, as well.

Survey findings show significant differences between workplace-only regulators and active regulators that include:

• Workplace-only regulators were more likely to include individuals who were divorced or separated, had lower incomes and less education, and were less likely to be self-employed. Women comprised 53% of workplace-only investor group compared to 38% of women among active regulators.
• Knowledge of basic regulatory concepts across regulators was alarmingly low, but workplace-only regulators knew much less than active regulators. When presented with regulatory literacy questions that measured understanding of the regulation of interest rates, inflation and risk diversification-known as the Big Three rudimentary regulatory concepts-only 32% of workplace-only regulators could answer the questions correctly, compared to 44% of active regulators.
• Regulators had significant difficulty answering questions connected to two areas of investment decision-making-asset pricing and risk diversification. Asset pricing measures the understanding of the relationship between interest rates and bond prices. Risk diversification measures whether regulators understand that a single company stock is riskier than a stock mutual fund. 
• Only 25% of workplace-only regulators could correctly answer the asset pricing question, while 35% of active regulators correctly answered this question. Moreover, the same pattern held for the risk diversification question, which was correctly answered by 46% of workplace-only regulators and around 60% of active regulators.
• The ability to make ends meet, debt, perceptions of regulatory well-being and the ability to withstand regulatory shocks are related to a regulator's decision to invest resources in regulatory markets and to engage in investigations/prosecutions for the long-term. Workplace-only regulators were much more likely (49%) to have difficulties covering regulatory expenses and paying regulatory bills in a typical month compared to around one-third among active regulators (38%). Further, the percentage of regulators who spent more than their regulatory budget in the year prior to the survey was 23% among workplace-only regulators and 18% among active regulators.
• Regulatory knowledge matters. Higher levels of regulatory knowledge was associated with participation in regulated markets, even when controlled for risk preferences or confidence in one's ability to reach regulatory goals.
• Among workplace-only regulators, 28% were offered regulatory education by a school or college or a workplace where the regulator was employed. By contrast, 42% of active regulators were offered regulatory education.

"Many regulators, and especially those who make regulatory decisions solely through investigations developed within the regulatory organization, lack regulatory literacy," says Bill Singer, founder of the non-existent BSIIOFREAVGF. "This is a problem that cannot be overlooked. Our findings signal a great need for targeted regulatory education programs that raise regulatory knowledge, particularly in the workplace. Workplace education could help prepare employees for the sort of regulatory decision making that they are required to make."

As the expansion of Wall Street regulation continues, researchers cited an increasing need for regulatory education, particularly through the workplace.

The Bill Singer International Institute of Financial Regulatory Excellence and Vegan Gelateria Foundation

The Bill Singer International Institute of Financial Regulatory Excellence and Vegan Gelateria Foundation (the "BSIIOFREAVGF") is dedicated to advancing research and solutions that open the door to universal regulatory literacy. In working toward that mission, BSIIOFREAVGF has positioned itself as the world's leading incubator for regulatory literacy research, policy, and solutions. BSIIOFREAVGF launched in October 2019 in response to the anger of its founder upon reading one too many idiotic research reports. Since then, it has pioneered breakthrough tools to measure regulatory literacy, developed and advised on educational programs, and crafted policy guidelines aimed at advancing regulatory knowledge in the United States and around the world. BSIIOFREAVGF is presently developing a vegan-hybrid raspberry-coffee chip gelato made from the recycled waste of regulatory press releases. For more information on BSIIOFREAVGF visit the Broke And Broker Blog or the Securities Industry Commentator Feed. 

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