March 2022 Board Update

FINRA’s Board of Governors met on March 9 and 10—and it approved three rule proposals and the allocation of 2021 fine monies to various capital initiatives in accordance with FINRA’s Financial Guiding Principles.

March 16, 2022

FINRA’s Board of Governors met last week in New York, and I am pleased to share some updates from our discussions.

As is customary for our first meeting of the year, the Board approved the allocation of prior-year fine monies to various capital initiatives in accordance with FINRA’s Financial Guiding Principles. We will release details about the allocations in an upcoming Report on the Use of 2021 Fine Monies.

The Board discussed our multi-year effort to transform its registration and disclosure programs and received an update on our ongoing Digital Experience Transformation. The Board also received an update from FINRA's Member Supervision department, which recently published the 2022 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program.

In addition, the Board approved three rulemaking items, which are listed below. Our next meeting is scheduled for May 11-12, 2022. More information regarding the Board's operations, including the membership and responsibilities of its committees, is available at www.finra.org/governance.

Sincerely,

Robert W. Cook

President and CEO

Rulemaking Items Approved at the March 2022 Board Meeting

Proposals Relating to Registration of Offices and Remote Inspections

The Board approved the submission to the SEC of several proposals related to member firms’ supervision obligations and process-related changes in response to remote and hybrid work environments.

Amendments Relating to Routing Disclosures for OTC Equity Securities and Centralized Hosting of SEC Rule 606(a) Reports

The Board approved the submission to the SEC of proposed rule amendments to require members to: (a) publish order routing reports for held orders in OTC equity securities and submit them to FINRA for publication on the FINRA website; and (b) submit Regulation NMS Rule 606(a) order routing reports to FINRA for publication on the FINRA website.

Amendments to Rules Related to the Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Claims

The Board approved the submission to the SEC of proposed amendments to align FINRA rules with the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.

Visit FINRA’s website for more information about FINRA’s rulemaking process.