Guidance

Guidance on Donations Due to Federally Declared Major Disasters

Q:  Would it be consistent with FINRA Rule 3220 (Influencing or Rewarding Employees of Others) for a member or an associated person to donate goods or money (either directly or through a fundraising platform) to employees of an institutional customer for losses sustained due to a federally declared major disaster? NEW

Registered representatives who are not qualified to engage in investment banking activities may, subject to specified conditions, receive transaction-based compensation for referring existing brokerage clients that express an interest in investment banking transactions.

Mr. Michael Markunas
Deputy General Counsel
Chief Compliance Officer
B. Riley FBR, Inc.
11100 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Re:      Investment Banking Referrals

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is transforming the financial services industry across the globe.

FINRA is a not-for-profit, self-regulatory organization (SRO) dedicated to promoting investor protection and market integrity in a manner that facilitates vibrant capital markets. One of FINRA’s tools for achieving this objective is fair and effective enforcement of our member firms’ compliance with securities laws and regulations.

Will I be able to log in to FINRA Gateway with my existing Firm Gateway credentials? 

Yes, Firm Gateway users will be able to log in to FINRA Gateway using their existing Firm Gateway credentials.

Can I customize my experience in FINRA Gateway? 

Yes. As of April 7, 2020, you can:

February 2020

Trading & Financial Compliance Examinations (“TFCE”) of the Market Regulation Department (“Market Regulation”) at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) is conducting a review of [FIRM] concerning the Firm’s decision not to charge commissions for customer transactions, the impact that not charging commissions has or will have on the Firm’s order routing practices and decisions, and other aspects of the Firm’s business. 

Is there a rule that addresses prohibited conditions relating to expungement of customer dispute information?

Yes, FINRA Rule 2081 provides that no member or associated person shall condition or seek to condition settlement of a dispute with a customer on, or to otherwise compensate the customer for, the customer’s agreement to consent to, or not to oppose, the member’s or associated person’s request to expunge customer dispute information from the CRD system. 

Does FINRA Rule 2081 apply only to settlements?

FINRA is issuing this Notice to remind member firms of their supervisory obligations under FINRA Rules 3110 (Supervision) and 3120 (Supervisory Control System) if they hold or transact in customer accounts owned by municipal entities or obligated persons (municipal clients), as defined in Section 15B of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), and participate in investment-related activities with municipal clients, such as recommending or selling non-municipal securities products to such municipal clients.

Summary

FINRA is issuing this Notice to restate and supplement prior guidance regarding the circumstances under which a firm or individual may influence the outcome of an investigation by demonstrating extraordinary cooperation. This Notice incorporates FINRA’s prior guidance and provides clarification and additional information about how FINRA assesses whether a potential respondent’s cooperation is “extraordinary” and distinct from the level of cooperation expected of all member firms and their associated persons. 

This article highlights some of the common cybersecurity threats faced by broker-dealers. In a number of cases, FINRA has observed that different types of attacks were coordinated and overlapped.

Please download the Senior Safe Act Fact Sheet

FINRA is a not-for-profit, self-regulatory organization (SRO) dedicated to promoting investor protection and market integrity in a manner that facilitates vibrant capital markets. One of FINRA’s tools for achieving this objective is fair and effective enforcement of our member firms’ compliance with securities laws and regulations.

FINRA is providing these Frequently Asked Questions about its 529 Plan Share Class Initiative (the “Initiative”) in response to a number of inquiries it has received from firms and trade associations. In order to allow firms sufficient time to consider the additional information provided here and to provide firms more time to review their supervisory systems and procedures with respect to 529 plan sales, FINRA is extending the due dates set forth in Regulatory Notice 19-04.