U.S. state securities regulators on Friday urged the SEC to prohibit Wall Street brokerages from requiring customers to settle legal disputes through arbitration, which prevents customers from going to court, joining a chorus of groups opposing such clauses. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), in a letter to the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, urged the agency to insure that investors have "meaningful remedies and a choice of forums" in which to resolve disputes with brokerages. "It has been our longstanding position that the 'take it or leave it' approach represented by these mandatory clauses is harmful to investors," A. Heath Abshure, president of NASAA, a Washington-based organization whose members are mostly U.S. state securities regulators, wrote in the letter. A flurry of organizations sent letters to the SEC this week voicing opposition to forced arbitration agreements that brokerages typically require
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