In hindsight, this is anything but surprising: A new arbitration program allowing aggrieved investors to have their cases heard by a panel with no links to Wall Street firms has proven popular. In fact, nearly 80 percent plaintiffs are opting for such panels.

"It is higher than I anticipated," the president of dispute resolution at Finra told a crowd at the annual meeting of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, as noted by Dealbook. "I would have thought it would have been 60 to 65 percent."

One could see this as a reflection of skepticism with Wall Street, which is undoubtedly true. But such panels would likely have been popular even if there hadn't been a financial crisis. If a customer has a beef with a brokerage firm, they certainly do not want anyone on their three-person panel that has warm and fuzzy feeling for the industry.

This is basically jury selection. A customer has to choose strategically. What will be really interesting is what kind of decisions these Wall Street-free panels come up with. Hopefully, some data and analysis will emerge soon. The big question is whether Wall Street-free panels are more sympathetic with aggrieved investors than other panels.

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