FINRA announced today that it has promoted Omer Meisel to Executive Vice President of the National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection Program (NCFC), effective October 2.
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Omer Meisel (Photo: Business Wire)
In his new role, Meisel reports to Greg Ruppert, Executive Vice President, Member Supervision at FINRA. Meisel succeeds Bill St. Louis, who was appointed Head of Enforcement in August. Meisel had served as acting head of the NCFC since St. Louis stepped into his new role.
“Omer has contributed significantly to FINRA’s increased focus on the critical areas of complex investigations, including cybersecurity and crypto assets. He is an innovative leader who has helped drive increased collaboration across FINRA. Omer brings to his new role deep knowledge of investigating complex securities fraud and close connections to regulatory and law enforcement partners,” said Ruppert.
As head of NCFC—which includes the National Cause Program (NCP) and Complex Investigations and Intelligence (CII)—Meisel leads teams that conduct investigations and examinations of firms and gather intelligence to detect financial crimes and inform FINRA and firms of emerging threats and risks to the financial industry.
“I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to lead such an incredible team of investigators and analysts who are dedicated to proactively identifying and mitigating threats to investors and safeguarding the markets. My team and I will focus on leveraging data and intelligence to drive investigations and examinations to address threats and risks to investors, our member firms, and the financial industry. I will also be committed to sharing threat intelligence with our member firms, so we can together better mitigate threats from bad actors,” said Meisel.
Meisel rejoined FINRA in 2021, as Vice President of the NCFC Specialist Teams, and united the specialist groups of the NCFC under the CII, which Meisel led for more than two years. As head of CII, Meisel united four specialist teams—the Special Investigation Unit, the High-Risk Registered Representatives Unit, the Cybersecurity Group, and the Vulnerable Adults and Seniors Team—and expanded their scope to address a diverse range of threats in cybersecurity, crypto and financial fraud.
Meisel also chairs FINRA’s Crypto Hub, which includes representatives from across FINRA, and is tasked with enhancing crypto and blockchain regulatory capabilities.
Meisel returned to FINRA after more than 22 years at the FBI, which he joined after working as an investigator at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), a predecessor of FINRA. In his last assignment at the FBI, he was the Assistant Special Agent In Charge of the FBI’s San Diego Division where he led the Cyber Branch (National Security and Criminal), the Counterintelligence Branch, and the Intelligence Branch. Meisel’s tenure as a Special Agent included specializing in complex corporate and securities fraud, money laundering, financial crimes, and international terrorism investigations. He also served on the Enron Task Force as a senior investigator and served in numerous leadership positions at the FBI, both domestic and international.
Prior to NASD, Meisel worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission as investigator and was a securities trader.
About FINRA
FINRA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities industry—brokerage firms doing business with the public in the U.S. FINRA, overseen by the SEC, writes rules, examines for and enforces compliance with FINRA rules and federal securities laws, registers broker-dealer personnel and offers them education and training, and informs the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers a dispute resolution forum for investors and brokerage firms and their registered employees. For more information, visit www.finra.org.
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