The National Association of Securities Dealers, the self-regulating organization of the U.S. securities industry, say that its board of governors has approved a new divisional structure.

In the new organization, NASD will have three operating divisions:

  • Regulatory Policy and Oversight, with primary responsibility for rule making, member regulation, market surveillance and enforcement;
  • Regulatory Services and Operations, with responsibility for NASD’s market operations and information systems, technology, the Central Registration Depository, international activities and member services, including education and training products; and
  • Dispute Resolution, with responsibility for arbitration and mediation of investor and industry disputes.

The board also extended the term of NASD chairman and CEO Robert Glauber to five years.

Mary Schapiro, president of NASD Regulation, will head Regulatory Policy and Oversight. She has also been named NASD vice chairman. Douglas Shulman has been named president of Regulatory Services and Operations. Linda Fienberg, the current head of NASD Dispute Resolution, will continue to oversee the leading securities dispute resolution forum. Schapiro’s division will be responsible for offering NASD’s regulatory services to U.S. markets, and Shulman’s to markets internationally.

“With our ownership of markets becoming a thing of the past, NASD has evolved into a fully independent organization with its focus entirely on financial regulation,” Glauber said. “This new structure serves and makes plain our overriding mission to bring integrity to the markets and confidence to investors. The streamlined new organization will help all NASD professionals work together effectively towards this single unifying purpose. These strategic changes are evolutionary – yet they are also essential.”

Glauber said that NASD’s divisional structure would go into effect immediately. NASD will seek approval from its membership this summer for the bylaw changes needed to officially consolidate the existing subsidiaries. “With this new structure, we will be able to fulfill our regulatory mandate in an even more agile and efficient manner that will advance our mission and make NASD an even better organization,” he said.

NASD also unveiled a new logo and word mark. It has also adopted the tagline, “Investor protection. Market integrity.”

Glauber also said the NASD board approved additional resources to expand enforcement efforts in light of both the new analyst conflict rules approved by the SEC and the USA Patriot Act passed by Congress last fall.