Richard Ketchum, the chairman and chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is to retire in the second half of 2016.

FINRA’s board of governors will conduct a search for his successor that will take into consideration internal and external candidates.

Ketchum joined FINRA from the New York Stock Exchange, where he was the "CEO of regulation." He also spent 12 years at NASD and The Nasdaq Stock Market, where he served as president of both organisations. Before that, he was the director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of market regulation.

Ketchum championed initiatives such as the High Risk Broker programme, improvements in BrokerCheck, the expansion of TRACE reporting of asset-backed securities, and the expansion of FINRA’s responsibilities to stock and options trading.