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Corporate Financing

The Corporate Financing Department assists FINRA-regulated firms in complying with FINRA rules and federal securities laws by reviewing documents related to firms' capital-raising activities and arrangements. These services provide protections to investors and issuers by regulating underwriting terms and arrangements and addressing conflicts of interest when underwriters are affiliated with an issuer or receive significant portions of the proceeds in an offering. 


Public Offerings

FINRA's review of public offerings complements the SEC’s registration process for issuers and provides firms with guidance on fair and reasonable underwriting arrangements.


Private Placements

The private placements review program provides added regulatory oversight when firms participate in offerings of unregistered securities to individual investors.

Statistics

Corporate Financing also provides general annual statistics on the number of regulatory filings submitted for issuers accessing the public or private capital markets.


Contact OGC

FINRA's Office of General Counsel (OGC) staff provides broker-dealers, attorneys, registered representatives, investors and other interested parties with interpretative guidance relating to FINRA’s rules. Please see Interpreting the Rules for more information.

OGC staff contacts:
Paul Mathews and Jim Wrona
FINRA, OGC
1700 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 728-8000

  • Guidance
    The Crowdfunding Offerings: Broker-Dealers and Funding Portals topic of the 2024 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report (the Report) informs member firms’ compliance programs by providing annual insights from FINRA’s ongoing regulatory operations, including (1) regulatory obligations and related considerations, (2) findings and effective practices, and (3) additional resources.
    January 09, 2024
  • Guidance
    The Private Placements topic of the 2024 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report (the Report) informs member firms’ compliance programs by providing annual insights from FINRA’s ongoing regulatory operations, including (1) regulatory obligations and related considerations, (2) findings and effective practices, and (3) additional resources.
    January 09, 2024
  • Guidance
    Filing Guidance - Public Offering Review
    September 15, 2020
  • Guidance
    This reference guide covers a range of private placement topics, from the basic question of "What is a private offering?" to more technical discussions on broker-dealer compliance with FINRA's private placement rules.
    July 16, 2019
  • FAQ
    FINRA Rule 5131 (New Issue Allocations and Distributions) addresses potential misconduct in the allocation and distribution of new issues.
    January 29, 2016
  • Exemptive Letter
    Summary of Exemption Decision Re: Rule 2710 Issued by Corporate Financing Department
    August 31, 2000
  • Exemptive Letter
    Exemption granted to extend exemption previously granted from Rule 2720(l), to [Firm] on June 14, 1999 to include offerings of warrants and purchase contracts and to units consisting of debt securities, warrants, and/or purchase contracts.
    August 11, 2000
  • FAQ
    Frequently asked questions about public offerings
  • Compliance Tools

    This report provides a summary of the review activity for the filings submitted during the selected and previous reporting periods.

    If you have questions regarding the content of this report, please contact FINRA Corporate Financing at (240) 386-4623.

    Deals Filed During the Selected Period

    Term

    Description

    FINRA Review Program

  • Compliance Tools
    Report cards created for firms to monitor timeliness of Corporate Financing filings.These report cards display statistics about late filings submitted to Corporate Financing.
  • FAQ
    Frequently asked questions about private placements.
  • Guidance
    As noted in Regulatory Notice 10-22 (Obligations of Broker-Dealers to Conduct Reasonable Investigations in Regulation D Offerings), as part of their obligations under FINRA Rule 2111 (Suitability) and supervisory requirements under FINRA Rule 3110 (Supervision), firms must conduct a “reasonable investigation” by evaluating “the issuer and its management; the business prospects of the issuer; the assets held by or to be acquired by the issuer; the claims being made; and the intended use of proceeds of the offering.”
  • Compliance Tools

    For any public offering that is required to be filed pursuant to FINRA Rule 5110(a)(2), FINRA Rule 5110(a)(3)(A) describes that the required documents and information must be filed by participating members with FINRA no later than three business days after any documents are filed with or submitted to the SEC, including confidential filings or submissions, or any state securities commission or other similar U.S.