FINRA International

FINRA International

FINRA works with international regulators to support and improve oversight of firms with multinational operations. Specifically, FINRA’s International Department works to:

 

  1. Establish, develop, and expand working relationships with key international regulators and regulatory bodies to improve oversight of global firms.  Its current focus  is the UK, Western Europe, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong;
     
  2. Integrate global collaboration into FINRA's core regulatory operations to support and improve FINRA's oversight of multi-national firms and markets. As part of this effort, International provides FINRA staff with information on such things as international regulatory and market developments, regulatory techniques, and practices at both the policy and operational levels.
     
  3. Deepen involvement, and develop FINRA viewpoints, in policy dialogues with global regulatory organizations such as IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), COSRA (Council of Securities Regulators of the Americas), and IFIE (International Forum for Investor Education), drawing upon key FINRA regulatory subject matter experts as appropriate.

 

Toward these goals, FINRA has entered into information sharing memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several overseas national regulators to help investigate possible instances of cross-border market abuse in a timely manner, exchange information on firms under common supervision of both regulators and allow more robust collaboration on approaches to risk-based supervision of firms.


To date, FINRA has MoUs with several organizations. Pursuant to FINRA Rule 8210, FINRA has the authority to enter into an agreement with a domestic federal agency, or subdivision thereof, or foreign regulator to share information for any regulatory purpose set forth in the agreement under certain confidentiality conditions, and, in the case of a foreign regulator, certain jurisdiction and reciprocity conditions. The following MoUs were entered into pursuant to that authority:

 

 

International Visitors Program

Each year, FINRA hosts international visitors who seek to learn more about our organization.  We provide an overview of FINRA’s regulatory authority and address specific topics that are of interest to our visitors. This program is open to all entities, including those with an existing relationship with FINRA as well as groups that wish to develop such a relationship.

To learn more or to arrange a visit, please contact FINRA International via email.