The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) just released its watch list for 2013, highlighting its top 10 products and regulatory areas that will be priorities during its exam schedule this year.

FINRA notes that retail investors have been challenged to find attractive returns within their risk tolerance, while increasingly shifting funds from equity to debt markets. "Investor appetite for yield, among other factors, has bid up market prices on investment-grade and high-yield debt, putting pressure on upside growth potential and creating significant downside risks,"it said in a statement.

In this environment, FINRA says that it is particularly concerned about "sales practice abuses, yield-chasing behaviors and the potential impact of any market correction, external stress event or market dislocation on market prices."

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.