FINRA Entitlement Account Administration Frequently Asked Questions

I. Getting Started with FINRA Entitlement

 

1. Q. What is FINRA Entitlement?
   
   A. FINRA Entitlement is the process by which a user is granted secure access to a participating FINRA Web Application(s) by an Account Administrator (AA) who maintains that account. Entitlement includes creating and deleting accounts and granting and denying specific privileges within an application(s) for a given user so that user may access the specific functionality that the privilege supports.
   
   
2. Q. What are the participating FINRA Entitlement applications?
   
   A. The participating FINRA Entitlement applications can be found on the FINRA Entitlement home page.
   
   
3. Q. How does my newly established organization get access to FINRA Entitlement application(s)?
   
   A. The form required by FINRA to gain access to FINRA Entitlement application(s) is called the FINRA Entitlement Agreement (FEA). This agreement requires your organization to verify that anyone designated as an Account Administrator (AA) has the authority to act on the organization's behalf with respect to the entitlements granted to users in your organization, and that your firm has read and agreed to the terms and conditions of the FINRA Entitlement Program (contained in the "FINRA Entitlement Program Terms of Use"). The FEA must be signed and mailed (not faxed) to FINRA, at the following address:
   
   FINRA Entitlement Group
   9509 Key West Avenue
   Rockville, Maryland 20850
   
   Overnight mail is also accepted at this address, and the phone number is (301) 869-6699 (broker-dealers) or (240) 386-4848 (investment advisers). The firm must also designate AAs for the FINRA Entitlement application(s) it is requesting by completing an Account Administrator Entitlement Form (AAEF). (See Section II. Becoming an Account Administrator for more information.)
   
   
4. Q. Who must sign the FINRA Entitlement Agreement?
   
   A. The FEA signatory must be an officer of the organization or otherwise have the legal authority to bind the organization.
   
   
5. Q. How can I obtain a copy of the FINRA Entitlement Agreement?
   
   A. The FEA is provided as a part of the FINRA Membership Kit that is sent to organizations requesting membership. You can also print a copy of the FEA from the FINRA Entitlement Web site.
   
   

II. Becoming an Account Administrator

 

6. Q. How can I be designated as an Account Administrator (AA) for my organization?
   
   A. The organization must submit a FINRA Account Administrator Entitlement Form ("AAEF") to designate you as an AA for the specific application(s) for which you will be an AA. The entitlement forms for FINRA Applications can be found on the FINRA Entitlement Forms & Confirmation Packets page.
   
   The entitlement forms for IARD can be found on the IARD Web site.
   
   
7. Q. Can my organization have more than one Account Administrator?
   
   A. Yes. Each organization should have both a Primary and an Alternate Account Administrator for each participating FINRA Entitlement application to which the organization is entitled.
   
   
8. Q. Can I be an Account Administrator for more than one FINRA Entitlement application?
   
   A. Yes. Your organization must submit a separate AAEF for each application for which you will be an Account Administrator.
   
   
9. Q. Who should sign the Account Administrator Entitlement Form?
   
   A. The AAEF should be signed by one of your organization's Account Administrators (either Primary or Alternate) or a Designated Firm Signatory.
   
   
10. Q. What will happen once my organization has submitted both the FINRA Entitlement Form and the Account Administrator Entitlement Form(s)?
    
    A. Once both the FEA and AAEF(s) have been received, the FINRA Entitlement Group will create accounts for the Account Administrators (AAs) at your organization. The FINRA Entitlement Group will then:
    
    
    1. Call the Primary and Alternate AAs to provide them with their User IDs and Passwords, and
    2. Send an email to the Primary and Alternate AAs to confirm their email addresses and provide a link to the Web page that includes the FINRA Entitlement Confirmation information.
    3. 
       
    At this point, if you are an AA, you can use the User ID and Password provided to log into any applications for which entitlement has been granted. You can also log into the Account Management site where you can create User Accounts for individuals at your organization. (See Section III. Account Administrator Roles and Responsibilities for more information.)
    
    
11. Q. What can I expect when I first log in with the new User ID and Password provided to me by the FINRA Entitlement Group?
    
    A. To ensure that only you have access to your password, when you first log into any participating FINRA Entitlement application to which you have been entitled, you will be directed to create your own password.  You will first need to enter the password provided to you by the FINRA Entitlement Group and then create and enter your own password for future use.  You will also be directed to select a Security Challenge Question and Response.  The Security Challenge question will be used if you forget your password or become locked out of your account.  When you call the FINRA Gateway Call Center, you will be asked to confirm your identity as an Account Administrator by providing your Response to the Security Challenge Question you selected.
    
    
12. Q. Once I become an Account Administrator for my firm, how do I update my own account?
    
    A. Account Administrators (AAs) are not able to update their own accounts or the accounts of other AAs at their organization through the Account Management site. As an AA, if you need to add or delete privileges or otherwise modify your account, you should submit a FINRA Entitlement Modification Form for the specific application to the FINRA Entitlement Group. You can print the Modification Form from the FINRA Entitlement Web site.
    
    If you forget your password or need to have your account unlocked, call the FINRA Gateway Call Center at (301) 869-6699 (broker-dealer firms) or at (240) 386-4848 (investment adviser firms).
    
    

III. Account Administrator Roles & Responsibilities

 

13. Q. As an Account Administrator, where can I go to maintain my users' FINRA Entitlement accounts?
    
    A. The Account Management site allows Account Administrators (AAs) for all participating FINRA Entitlement applications to access the users for which they are responsible. The Account Management site can be found at https://accountmgmt.nasd.com. You can also link to the Account Management site directly through the application(s) for which you are an AA.
    
    
14. Q. What is my role as an Account Administrator at my organization?
    
    A. You are responsible for managing and maintaining the accounts for individuals in your organization who use participating FINRA application(s) for which you are an Account Administrator. This includes:
    
    
    • Creating, disabling, and deleting FINRA Entitlement User Accounts,
    • Performing password administration (e.g., creating initial passwords, unlocking accounts, and resetting passwords for users),
    • Setting privileges for the FINRA Entitlement User Accounts,
    • Performing account maintenance to validate active users or delete dormant users, and
    • Cloning (copying) a user's privileges to create a new user account.
      
      
15. Q. What is involved in creating a FINRA User Account?
    
    A. When creating a new account, the Account Administrator (AA) must:
    
    
    1. Create a FINRA User ID (i.e., a login name for an individual at the organization who requires access to FINRA application(s)),
    2. Create an initial password for the user,
    3. Designate the specific application(s) to which the user requires entitlement,
    4. Set the necessary privileges for the application(s) to which the user requires entitlement, and
    5. Provide the user with his/her FINRA User ID and Password.
       
       
    Note: AAs can systematically generate a FINRA User ID and password for the user. When/if this user no longer needs access to the FINRA application(s), you are also responsible for deleting the FINRA User Account. For security reasons, Account Administrators must delete an account immediately upon notification.
    
    
16. Q. How do I give a user access to specific functionality within an application?
    
    A. Specific functionality within a FINRA application is called a privilege.  A user will be granted access to a particular functionality within an application when you give him/her "use" entitlement to the application and the privilege within that application.  The default entitlement for all applications and privileges is "none", which means that the user cannot access that functionality, e.g., if a user needs to view individuals' information in Web CRD, when you create the user's account, you will give him/her "use" entitlement to the CRD application, "use" entitlement to the Individual section of privileges, and "use" entitlement to the View Individual Information privilege.
    
    If a user has "use" entitlement to a privilege and no longer needs to access that functionality, you should change the entitlement to "none".  That prohibits the user from accessing that functionality.
    
    
17. Q. What does it mean to "clone" an account?
    
    A. Cloning an account is the process of creating a new account by duplicating (copying) an existing user account that is entitled to the same participating FINRA applications and privileges as the new user needs to be. If you have several users at your organization that use the same applications and privileges, cloning will minimize the time you spend setting up those accounts. You can access a user at your organization and clone that user's account (i.e., copy that user's entitlements) for each individual who requires the same applications and privileges.
    
    For detailed instructions on cloning a user's account, see the FINRA Entitlement Tutorial module on cloning or FINRA Entitlement Help Text (available within the Account Management site).
    
    
18. Q. Can I use the clone function to update an existing user’s privileges?
    
    A. No. Cloning may be used only when creating a new user account. If you need to update an existing user’s privileges, you should edit that user’s account and modify the privileges as necessary.
    
    
19. Q. When I log into the FINRA Entitlement Tool, what FINRA User Accounts can I view?
    
    A. As an Account Administrator (AA), you can view your own User Account, the User Accounts of other AAs at your organization, and the User Accounts of all other users at your organization.
    
    
20. Q. When I log into the FINRA Entitlement Tool, what FINRA User Accounts can I edit?
    
    A. You can edit User Profile information (e.g., user's name, phone number, email address, etc.) for all users at your firm other than Account Administrators (AAs), but you can only give or remove privileges for the participating FINRA application(s) for which you are a designated AA. You can also change passwords and disable, activate, unlock, and delete User Accounts for all users at your organization other than AAs.
    
    NOTE: While you can view other AAs' accounts at your organization, you cannot change passwords, disable, activate, unlock, delete or edit information or entitlement for other AAs at your organization.  The FINRA Entitlement Group is responsible for changing passwords and unlocking AA accounts, as well as creating, disabling, and/or deleting accounts for AAs at your organization.
    
    
21. Q. What do the "read" and "grant" privileges that I see in my own account mean? Why can I not see these options when granting entitlement to users in my organization?
    
    A. The "read" and "grant" privileges only apply to Account Administrators. As an AA, if you have "read" entitlement for a privilege, you can view how users in your organization are entitled to that privilege. If you have "grant" entitlement for a privilege, you can give or deny that privilege to the users at your organization. When entitling a user at your organization, you can only give him/her "use", if he/she needs the functionality, or "none", if he/she does not need the functionality.
    
    
22. Q. How can I change my Security Challenge Question and/or Response?
    
    A. If you need to change your Security Challenge Question and/or Response, you may do so by clicking the My Account option when you log into the FINRA Entitlement Account Management Tool. From the My Account screen, you can select a new Security Challenge Question and provide a new Security Response. For detailed instructions, see the FINRA Entitlement Help Text (available within the Account Management site).
    
    
23. Q. How can a user at my organization change his/her Security Challenge Question and/or Response?
    
    A. The user can click the Change Password link from any application to which he/she is entitled, and then click the My Account option. From the My Account screen, he/she can select a new Security Challenge Question and provide a new Security Response.
    
    
24. Q. What should a user at my organization do if he/she has forgotten the Password or locked their account?
    
    A. Users who forget their password and/or are locked out from attempting to enter a password more than five times can click on the Forgot Password? link to request a new password be set to them via email.
    
    
25. Q. I am attempting to select a password for my account, and the system keeps rejecting the passwords I choose.  Why might this be happening?
    
    A. The FINRA Entitlement system password must not contain your first, middle, or last name.  If your middle name is abbreviated as a single initial, that letter may not be used in your password.  Choose a password that does not contain that letter.
    
    

IV. Deleting and/or Replacing an Account Administrator 

 

26. Q. How can my organization delete an Account Administrator from a single application (but not from all applications)?
    
    A. Your organization should submit a FINRA Entitlement Modification Form for the application from which you want the Account Administrator's (AA's) access deleted.  You can locate the form under the link for the appropriate application on the FINRA Entitlement Web page.
    
    
27. Q. How can my organization delete an Account Administrator's account for all participating FINRA applications?
    
    A. Your organization should fax, on company letterhead, the Account Administrator's (AA's) First and Last Name, Organization CRD #, and the request to delete the AA's account from all applications.  A firm signatory must sign the deletion request letter.
    
    
28. Q. How can my organization replace an existing Account Administrator (AA) for an application with a new AA?
    
    A. If you need to replace an existing Primary Account Administrator (AA) for an application with a new Primary AA, you can submit an Account Administrator Entitlement Form (AAEF) for the appropriate application.  On the AAEF, you should check the "Replace Primary AA" box and provide the name of the AA being replaced.  The FINRA Entitlement Group will delete access to that application for the AA you are replacing, and create an account for the new AA.  You do not need to complete a FINRA Entitlement Modification Form to delete the Primary AA you are replacing.  
    
    

V. Dormant User Account Process

 

29. Q. When does a user account get automatically deleted?
    
    A. Per FINRA's Corporate Security Policy, a user account with access to any of the applications offered by the FINRA Entitlement Program that has not been accessed at least once during a consecutive 13-month period will be considered a "dormant" account and will be automatically deleted. If this should occur, an Account Administrator at the firm will need to recreate the account if the user again needs access to any of these applications. If the account that was deleted is for an Account Administrator, the individual will need to submit an Account Administrator Entitlement Form (AAEF) to have the account recreated.
    
    

For more information on Account Administration, see the FINRA Entitlement Tutorial for Account Administrators.