Susan Schroeder, who was tasked with combining the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s enforcement functions into one group, will leave the agency later this year. Jessica Hopper, deputy head of enforcement, will serve as acting head of the division while FINRA searches for a new head. The regulator did not offer a reason for the departure.
Since taking over the enforcement division in 2017, Schroeder has consolidated FINRA’s enforcement teams, which now comprises 340 employees and 14 district offices.
Traditionally, FINRA enforcement was divided between those who handled disciplinary actions related to trading-based matters, found through market surveillance and examination programs, and the other handling cases referred from other divisions in the organization, including Member Regulation, Corporate Financing, the Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence and Advertising Regulation. Schroeder brought those two groups together.
Hopper, who joined FINRA enforcement in 2004, was a director in FINRA's Washington, D.C. office until 2011. Prior to joining FINRA, she worked in Legg Mason Wood Walker's legal and compliance team.
The changes are part of FINRA360, the agency’s broad and ongoing self-evaluation and improvement initiative launched in early 2017.
