The practice highlights a tension in the United States securities markets, which rely on private, so-called self-regulatory organizations like Finra to police industry members.
Mr. Lowenstein said his group had recently formed an advertising review council to monitor and police industry practices, and that it does not condone the marketing of mature-rated videos to underage consumers.
INPO not only set safety and operational standards, but through force-of-membership (and associated, training, certification and insurance "teeth") policed industry operations.
Health officials, meanwhile, say it's an example of serious gaps in the way environmental regulators police industries in neighborhoods across the region that are overburdened with multiple pollution sources.
Mr. Davidson had argued that the Nasdaq sale should be delayed until regulators could decide whether to form a single, self-policing industry organization.
But such decisions reflect the difficulty the bureau will face in policing the industry.
Over a long career, officials are often transferred repeatedly between oversight and promotion divisions, blurring the lines between supporting and policing the industry.
But the agency's most serious problem is not corruption within, but crippling understaffing, critics say, adding that it has little real chance of policing an industry prone to corruption and rife with nepotism.
One change Wall Street wants is for regulators to shift from policing the industry with hard and fast rules — do this, don't do that — to using looser "principles" that might be open to interpretation.
While Mr. Horn is a relatively minor player in the pantheon of financial fraud, his actions highlight the persistent problems with policing the industry, even after the wave of rules enacted since the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff's giant Ponzi scheme in 2008.
