I believe that most of you would agree that it is a privilege to work in the capital markets. As such, we have a responsibility to manage the capital that is entrusted to our care by individuals and institutions in a professional, responsible, and ethical manner. However, because investment professionals are relatively lightly regulated, unscrupulous behavior provides regulators with "ammunition" to justify tighter controls.

Historically, organizations such as CFA Institute have helped keep excessive regulation at bay. By subscribing to a set of principles and acting accordingly, CFA Institute members provide an elegant solution to creating investor trust. However, that trust can be easily broken, and our reputations can be tarnished by the actions of a few, such as those recently indicted in the trading scheme.

This begs the question of whether we can self-police ourselves. One of the disturbing elements of the latest scandal is that one of the accused was allegedly making money illegally trading on prior day leaks about sell-side grade changes. Then, when some colleagues found out about it, they did not report the violation to the compliance department. Rather, they decided they wanted in on the action. Such a scenario would have been my worst nightmare during my former days.

In light of recent events, I have called upon our Standards of Practice staff to review whether our code is strong enough on whistleblowing. Additionally, I plan to ask our Board of Governors to support initiatives that encourage and make it easier for us to self-police so the regulators don't have to.

I encourage you not to turn a blind eye when you see misconduct. With your help, we can work toward increasing the likelihood that dishonest individuals will be uncovered and that they pay the price for contributing to the discrediting of our profession.