Leigh Wittick is an Affiliate Regulatory & Compliance Consultant with the Bates Group. She founded Piper Compliance (previously Leigh W. Vazquez, LLC) in 2009 to provide broker-dealer consulting services, including AML independent testing, trading and market making audits, FINRA-required annual testing, advertising review, continuing education services, registration, risk assessments and annual compliance meetings. Leigh also provides assistance with FINRA Membership Applications and Continuing Membership Applications. Other services include ongoing compliance consulting and serving as a liaison for FINRA/State/SEC examinations for clients conducting activities in equities, municipals, mergers and acquisitions, private placements, underwriting, options, market making, proprietary trading and institutional fixed income.
Prior to starting her own company, Leigh was Managing Director of ACA Compliance Group’s Broker-Dealer Services Division in Boca Raton, Florida, beginning in 2006. She was responsible for the following:
From 2003 to 2006, Leigh was the Managing Director of BISYS Regulatory Services ("BRS") where she consulted on regulatory compliance issues, preparation and electronic filing of regulatory reports, and registration requirements for Broker-Dealers and Registered Investment Advisers. Some of her responsibilities include the following:
Between 2001 and 2003, Leigh was Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for Bankoh Investment Services, Bank of Hawaii's broker-dealer. As Chief Compliance Officer she developed supervisory procedures for all product lines including, private placements, variable and fixed annuities, life insurance, mutual funds, municipals, and options. Leigh also reviewed transactions for suitable product sales to customers, monitored for patterns of activity such as switching and 1035 exchanges and conducted training on products for the registered representatives and operations staff. She managed all branch office examinations and reports and also served as a liaison to Bank of Hawaii’s internal audit department for SEC, FDIC and FINRA audits.
In 2000, Leigh was the Trading Supervision Manager for W.R. Hambrecht in San Francisco. While with W.R. Hambrecht, she was responsible for supervising the market making, listed, options, and institutional sales trading desks. She also managed compliance and regulatory reviews, procedures, advertising and other communications while monitoring daily trading activity and sales reports.
Leigh began her regulatory career in 1998 as an Associate Examiner with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") (f/k/a NASD) in the San Francisco District Office. During her tenure as a regulator, Leigh conducted on-site audits of securities firms, monitored compliance with federal securities laws and FINRA/Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) rules and regulations. She also advised regulated entities on procedures to conduct securities operations while maintaining compliance with appropriate regulations.
ACA Compliance Group, Managing Director - Broker Dealer Services, 2006
BISYS Regulatory Services (BRS), Managing Director, 2003 - 2006
Bankoh Investment Services, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, 2001 - 2003
W.R. Hambrecht, Trading Supervision Manager, 2000 - 2001
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Associate Examiner, 1998 - 2000
Stetson University, B.B.A. General Economics, 1995
Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, MBA with a concentration in Finance, 1998
Bates Group is with you every step of the way. Contact us today for more information on how our End-to-End Solutions can help your firm.
Contact Bates Group