DOL Fiduciary Rule Will Accelerate Broker-Dealer Closings
February 22, 2016 By Jon Henschen, as featured on ThinkAdvisor and FSI NewsBrief Since 2008, we’ve seen a steep and consistent drop in the number of broker-dealers. As reported by data aggregator Fishbowl Strategies, we were down to 4,578 BDs in 2010. By February of 2014, that number was down to 4,181. We ended 2015 with 4,034 broker-dealers, with the largest segment of firms closing by far being equity trading firms. September 2015 turned out to be a false flag of hope where we had 14 new firms admitted and only 5 firms withdrew. Nevertheless, fourth quarter results continued the downward trend. Looking at the fourth quarter of 2015, we had 16 new firms that were admitted and 53 firms that withdrew. Of the 53 that withdrew, 32 were equity trading firms, 12 were private...