John Pinto is the Managing Director in charge of the Washington, D.C. office of RRS where
he provides
consulting and support to all segments of the financial services industry, including
major broker-dealers
across the country. During his almost 30-year career as a regulator with
the National Association of
Securities
Dealers (NASD), the predecessor to FINRA, Mr. Pinto
rose from entry level examiner to
become the top-level
executive in charge of all NASD
examination and enforcement functions.
At the NASD he served for 10 years as Executive Vice President for regulation. In that role, Mr.
Pinto
reported
directly to the President of NASD, and was responsible for more than half of the
approximately
1,800 NASD
employees, and for establishing policies, practices and
procedures for NASD examination,
surveillance and
enforcement activities. Specifically, his
responsibilities included the operation and
management of the 14
NASD District Offices,
which conduct field examinations of the 5,500 NASD
members, perform financial and
operational surveillance, investigated customer complaints, and initiate
disciplinary actions as
appropriate.
Also under Mr. Pinto’s direction was regulation of the NASDAQ Stock
Market,
OTC Bulletin Board, and other
OTC markets under the Market Surveillance Department; the
Enforcement Department for major fraud and
manipulation cases; Corporate Financing for
review of
underwriting materials; Advertising Regulation for
overseeing NASD member
compliance with Association
rules regarding advertising and sales literature; and
the
Compliance Department for support of district
operations and establishing examination
policies and
procedures.
Mr. Pinto has received numerous awards and honors, including in 1997 the Securities Industry
Association’s
Compliance and Legal Division award for “Meritorious and Distinguished
Services to the
Securities Industry”
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s award for “Exceptional Service in the Public
Interest.” In 1996, he
received the Outstanding Human
Performance Intervention Award for performance
and instructional
technology from the
International Society for Performance Improvement, and the
Microsoft and
Computerworld-sponsored Windows World Open award for using technology in new and
original ways to
enhance business.
Among his many accomplishments and contributions as a senior executive of the NASD, Mr.
Pinto
testified
before Congress on behalf of the Association, having appeared before the
Committee on Energy
and
Commerce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance
of the House of Representatives
regarding
international securities enforcement, the municipal
securities market, penny stock market fraud,
short-selling
activity in the stock markets and
sales practice abuses including the presence of
unscrupulous “rogue
brokers” in the
securities industry.
While with the NASD, Mr. Pinto was keynote speaker and featured panelist at all NASD and
NASDR
Spring
and Fall compliance conferences. He was also a key speaker at annual
conferences of the
Securities Industry
Association’s Compliance and Legal Division, and at
several National Regulatory
Services Compliance
Conferences. Other conference and
seminar engagements include the Bank
Securities Association,
Consumer Bankers
Association, Practicing Law Institute, Securities and
Exchange Commission, Federal
Reserve
and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
In addition to numerous publications within the NASD, he has written for external publications;
notably,
The
NASD’s Enforcement Agenda in the Northwestern University Law Review,
Spring, 1991; Trading and
Market
Making Surveillance Program for the NASDAQ Stock Market
for the Journal of Financial Regulation
and
Compliance, Henry Stewart Publications, London,
England, 1996; and a chapter on NASD regulatory
and
enforcement programs in The
NASDAQ Stock Market Handbook.
Mr. Pinto has served as a member of the NASD’s Market Regulation Committee, which has
delegated
authority by the NASD Board of Governors to, among other things, advise it on
matters involving the
surveillance and enforcement of rules governing NASD members
conduct in The NASDAQ Stock Market
and
other OTC markets.
Mr. Pinto graduated from Rutgers University cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree. |
