The SEC’s new investor advocate takes on tough assignment

It seems ironic that a federal agency with a longstanding mandate to protect investors would need a new advocate to do just that. Nonetheless, Rick Fleming, the first head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Advocate, is busy setting up shop, staffing a six-person office and setting priorities. The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law called for the post at a time when the SEC was under attack for numerous failures. Among them: missing red flags that would have revealed Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme years before he wiped out investors. The SEC, critics said, had paid too much attention to its other mandate: clearing the way for businesses to raise capital through securities offerings. More on Reuters here.