The agency recently voted to issue guidelines on how corporations as well as investment companies, such as mutual funds, should make the required disclosures of year 2000 costs and risks. The NASD, which operates the Nasdaq Stock Market, also is proposing to require that investors be given a more detailed explanation of arbitration agreements entered into by brokerage firms and how the arbitration process works. The SEC recently approved a proposal by the NASD, which handles most of the cases, to eliminate its requirement that brokerage firm employees go through industry-sponsored arbitration to settle job discrimination disputes. The change, which takes effect next Jan. 1, does not affect private, in-house agreements that employees might sign with brokerage firms. Some lawmakers have proposed measures that would outlaw Wall Street's unique practice of requiring employees to forfeit their right to sue their firms.
Arbitration also is used to handle customers' complaints about their brokers.