BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

President John F. Kennedy once said that “the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”

While this is indeed sage advice, it is unfortunately seldom followed by legislators and regulators who are often too preoccupied with investigating the problems of the past to focus their attention on the dangers that lurk ahead.

At the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), however, Chairman Mary Schapiro is seeking to change that dynamic. The Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation, or RiskFin, as it has come to be known, is the first new division established at the SEC in 37 years. As the Wall Street Journal put it last week, RiskFin’s mission is “to protect the financial system from the next potentially toxic innovation or the next Bernard Madoff.”

The message to those who would seek to game the system is clear: the SEC has moved smartly and quickly to forestall future frauds and threats to the marketplace. And it has done so with the foresight and agility to move as quickly as the market itself.

For many, the work at RiskFin will be received favorably – that is to say that businesses with long-term horizons will recognize the value in being seen as good actors – and staying out of the SEC’s (at least the Enforcement Division’s) spotlight.

Michael W. Robinson is Senior Vice President and Chair of the Corporate Practice at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation's top crisis communications firm, and a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog. Connect with Levick on Twitter: @Levick.