US Securities Firms Recently Agreed to Pay a Record Amount

U.S. securities firms recently agreed to pay a record amount of $1.4 billion in settlement charges brought by government regulators. Regulators claimed that firms had abused investors during the market boom of the 1990s. Abuses included analysts tailoring their research reports and ratings on the stocks they covered in order to win more business for their firm. If this settlement causes Wall Street firms to comply with the letter of the law but they violate the spirit of the law, the firms are engaging in

A) elimination of conflicts of interest.
B) creative response.
C) the capture hypothesis.
D) deregulation.