The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Wednesday that it has formed an Office of Financial Innovation to be headed by Haimera Workie.
The new office "will serve as a central point of coordination for issues related to significant financial innovations by FINRA member firms, particularly new uses of financial technology, or fintech," FINRA states.
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Workie currently serves as a senior director at FINRA and previously served as Deputy Associate Director in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets.
"Innovation continues to pose new opportunities and challenges for our member firms and the broader financial services industry, and it is essential that we as regulators keep pace," said Robert Cook, FINRA's president and CEO, in a statement. "Under Haime's leadership, I am confident the Office of Financial Innovation will further FINRA's long-standing commitment to understanding and addressing these issues through coordinated responses that foster both innovation and investor protection."
The new office is an outgrowth of the Innovation Outreach Initiative under FINRA360 "and will collaborate with teams across FINRA to promote engagement with the industry, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders on matters involving significant financial innovation by FINRA member firms," the broker-dealer self-regulator said.
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
