In a letter to Collins signed by its current and incoming Presidents, NASAA commended Collins in particular for the enactment of legislation she authored after conducting hearings into stock market fraud as Chairman of the Senate''s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). The provision, which passed as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, allows the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to bar brokers nationally in cases where state securities administrators have already barred them locally for securities law violations. Such a change relieves the SEC of the need to conduct a separate investigation and hearing, saving it precious resources.
In addition, NASAA praised Collins for her "responsible pension reform, elder justice and other bills designed to protect our most vulnerable citizens."
"As we learned in the subcommittee''s hearings on stock market fraud, it is easy for small time crooks to move out of one state and into another, thus avoiding state prohibitions. Allowing the SEC to bar them nationally in cases where a separate federal investigation gives it another tool to fight securities fraud," said Collins. "The SEC already can give similar effect to foreign nations'' enforcement actions. It is high time we give them the authority to do so based on our state securities regulators actions," she noted. "Seniors," she added, "are particularly vulnerable to the high pressure tactics frequently employed by those engaged in securities fraud."
Senator Collins, who previously served as Maine''s Commissioner of Business and Financial Regulation, has a history of active corporate oversight, which includes PSI'''s recent investigations into the collapse of the Enron Corporation. The investigations, among the most vigorous and in-depth, probed the role of Enron''s board of directors, as well as the complicated assistance provided Enron by some of America''s premier financial institutions. In prior years, even as the capital markets were booming, Collins held hearings as Chairman of PSI on the dangers of day trading and Internet stock sales in addition to those on the microcap stock market.
NASAA consists of 66 state, provincial, and territorial securities administrators in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. In the United States, NASAA represents the 50 state securities agencies responsible for investor protection.