Important Changes to Request Types – Beginning January 11, 2020.

In an effort to streamline the processing of information requests, FINRA is consolidating the number of request types that are sent to member firms from Member Supervision. The five new categories are: Firm Exam Request, Cause Exam Request, Trading and Financial Compliance Examinations (TFCE) Firm Exam Request, TFCE Cause Exam Request, and Statutory Disqualification. This change to Member Supervision requests will have no impact on Request Manager requests from other departments such as Advertising Regulation or Enforcement. This Member Supervision update, which will become effective in Firm Gateway on January 11, 2020 does not require any changes to FINRA entitlement accounts. Questions can be directed to the FINRA Gateway Call Center at (800) 321-6273.

This change will merge 19 different request types down to 5 mentioned above. A request type refers to the overall general purpose for the request. For example, currently there are 7 different request types for a firm cycle examination: Financial Operations, Sales Practice, Municipal, Option, FLOOR, Alternate Capital, and First FinOp. All are a different flavor of the same thing, a firm examination. To streamline record requests, these 7 different request types are being merged into 1, as listed in the table below. Please note that new request types will support existing Information Requests entitlements, so no changes are required to FINRA Entitlement accounts.

The Request Type field can be found in the Information Requests cabinet (3rd column on the screenshot below). 

Be aware changes to request template types impact the default email subject line text for each information request. See an example below:

FINRA Request for ABC Securities: Financial Operations Cycle Exam Request

will change to this:

FINRA Request for ABC Securities: Firm Exam Request

* Please note that FINRA staff can customize the email notification subject line text prior to sending the request, so the subject line text may vary from request to request. 

If you have any questions, please contact the FINRA Support Center at (800) 321-6273.