Senior US market watchdog official exits to join dealmaking fintech Finalis
FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) offices in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 11, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
WASHINGTON, Aug 13 : Steven Price, senior vice president of market investigations at the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), has left the Wall Street watchdog to become chief compliance officer at dealmaking fintech Finalis, the company told Reuters on Thursday.
During the past six years at FINRA, a self-regulatory organization overseeing broker-dealers, Price was one of Wall Street's top cops, supervising thousands of investigations.
He most recently oversaw FINRA's probes into potential securities law violations, such as insider trading and market manipulation. Before that, he launched FINRA's National Cause Program, where he led the development of the watchdog's first AI-driven model to centralize and analyze complaints, tips and other referrals of potential misconduct.
Price's move to San Francisco-based Finalis comes as the rise of fintechs and AI is creating competition on Wall Street and reshaping investment banking, allowing more bankers at large firms to launch boutiques and scoop up smaller deals.
Boutiques can use AI tools to perform the analytical and administrative work traditionally handled by large teams at Wall Street firms, while Finalis provides licensing and other dealmaking compliance infrastructure.
"Being able to take some of the lessons I learned at FINRA on how you can make things faster and connect the right information to the right parties... This was a really attractive opportunity for me," Price said in an interview.
Former Kirkland & Ellis M&A lawyer Federico Baradello founded Finalis in 2020. The company says it has facilitated $34 billion of transactions to date.
FINRA did not respond to a request for comment.
