The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) continues to feature one of the bureaus or offices and its director. This month’s newsletter features the Securities Bureau.
Theodore Miles and the Securities Bureau
The Securities Bureau, which is headed by director Theodore A. (Tony) Miles, is organized functionally into three divisions: Licensing, Corporation Finance and Examinations. The Licensing Division, headed by Assistant Director Maurice Goff, receives and processes license applications submitted by securities firms and their professional associates: broker-dealers and their agents, investment advisers and their representatives, and agents of issuers.
The Corporation Finance Division, headed by Assistant Director James (Mike) McManus, handles registered securities offerings and notice filings related to various types of exempt offerings and transactions, as well as the offerings that are preempted by federal law from state registration (for these purposes, Washington, D.C. is a state).
The Examination Division, headed by Assistant Director Senayet Meaza, conducts routine and special examinations of the firms regulated by the Securities Bureau, as well as special inquiries into possible securities violations that involve licensed entities or offerings subject to the registration requirements. The bureau also works closely with DISB’s Office of Communications to sponsor and present investor education programs in the community.
During fiscal year 2006, the Licensing Division issued licenses (initials and renewals) to more than 1,800 broker-dealer firms, more than 98,500 broker-dealer agents, 1,033 investment adviser firms, a little over 3,000 investment adviser representatives, and 40 agents of issuers, for fees totaling more than $5 million. In the same period, the Corporation Finance Division reviewed 64 securities offerings and processed nearly 20,500 notice filings, including 910 notice filings for exempt securities offerings and nearly 20,000 notice filings for investment company offerings, for fees totaling more than $9 million. Most of these categories have seen significant increases in comparison to fiscal year 2005.
Further, during the year, the Examination Division engaged in initial examinations or follow-up examinations that involved 13 securities firms registered in the District of Columbia; and conducted an additional five “meet and greet” events. This is a new initiative where DISB makes visits to newly registered firms to introduce the firm’s officers to the staff of the Securities Bureau, and to review the principal securities regulatory provisions that their firms will be subject to, in the District of Columbia.
The Securities Bureau, together with the Office of Communications, localized in two national investor-education programs under the Investor Protection Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit: Investor Education @your library (the first session was presented at the Martin Luther King branch of the D.C. Public Library); and the “Campaign for Wise and Safe Investing,” now in the start-up phase as a joint program with the AARP.
Through the Securities Bureau, DISB is an active member of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). In 2006, director Miles served as chair of NASAA’s Investment Adviser Section, and seven members of DISB’s staff were part of NASAA’s project groups.
Miles is a native Washingtonian and a graduate of Harvard College and Howard University School of Law. Before joining DISB, Miles was the deputy general counsel of the National Science Foundation. His previous experience includes five years as the general counsel of National Public Radio, four years at the Securities Exchange Commission, and more than 10 years in senior executive positions at the U.S. Energy Department. He also was in private practice as counsel to the firm of Peabody, Rivlin, Lambert and Meyers, and taught corporations and other securities-related courses as an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law for more than 20 years.