NASAA Summarizes Recent State Enforcement Trends

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") identified recent enforcement trends in an annual summary of state enforcement actions. NASAA included, for the first time, statistics on the effectiveness of state efforts aimed at protecting vulnerable adults from financial exploitation.

According to the 2019 NASAA Enforcement Report:

• 5,320 investigations were conducted and 2,067 enforcement actions were pursued by state securities regulators;

• $558 million was ordered to be returned to investors as restitution; and

• 1,000 licensing sanctions were imposed on respondents.

NASAA also reported that 23 jurisdictions adopted rules or enacted legislation based on NASAA's Model Act to Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation. Fourteen of those jurisdictions reported receiving 426 reports of the potential financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult from broker-dealers and investment advisers.