NEW YORK (CNN) - The news today that the SEC is threatening a ten million dollar fine against six brokerages for failing to keep e-mails isn't good news about Wall Street's commitment to improving investor confidence. Those brokerages are required to keep e-mails for three years... plain and simple. They knew it... and if 100 million dollar fines against Credit Suisse First Boston and Merrill Lynch weren't adequate reminders, the brokerages might have noticed that the Justice Department destroyed a firm, Andersen, because it deemed document destruction to be a terminal offense. Or maybe someone did notice that in all three cases, e-mails were the centerpiece of the evidence against those firms. I hope not.

And it's only marginally encouraging that the SEC is serving notice on Wall Street in the mildest of terms... and there's no explanation from the firms or the SEC as to why the destroyed e-mails weren't ordered recovered. Investors, already beaten and battered by this market, shouldn't have to wait or ask for explanations about the actions of the agency who mission it is to protect them.