Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph Borg on Tuesday began a one-year term after having been elected president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), becoming the first securities administrator to lead the umbrella group of state and provincial securities regulators for a third term.

Borg previously served as the group’s president in 2001 and 2006.

Borg kicked of his third term by announcing NASAA’s leadership team. The new board of directors includes: President-elect Michael Pieciak of Vermont, Past President Mike Rothman of Minnesota, Shonita Bossier of Kentucky; Alberta Securities Commission Vice Chairman Tom Cotter; Pamela Epting of Florida; Bryan Lantagne of Massachusetts, Melanie Senter Lubin of Maryland; and Tanya Solov of Illinois.

In his inaugural address to NASAS’s annual conference in Seattle, Borg noted that the association is launching a new board-level committee focused on fintech, which will be headed by Pieciak, to provide the group with policy advice in the fintech area.

“This leadership team will keep a finger on the pulse of current and emerging issues in financial technology, including robo-advisers, crowdfunding or alternative investment platforms, and digital technologies and cryptocurrency used in securities transactions,” Borg said. It also intends to host a fintech roundtable next year.

“We must continue taking steps to educate investors about protecting themselves against cyberattacks. We must continue helping firms guard against attacks including efforts to hobble operations or steal critical client information. And we must continue working to pull cyber criminals from behind their keyboards and place them in front of the law,” he added.

Over the past five years, Borg said, agencies that belong to NASAA have helped secure US$2.4 billion in investor restitution, and sent criminals to prison for almost 6,500 years.

“We provide victims the opportunity for justice and for closure, both as they seek to recover financially and as they seek justice against those who have taken advantage of them. We provide the sense of security to the industry and our communities that law and order will prevail — that bad brokers won’t ruin the reputation of the industry or plunder individuals who would otherwise trust their investments to a law-abiding institution. We provide a stark warning to would-be-fraudsters that crime does not pay,” Borg said.