Rulemaking Items for Discussion at the December 2012 Meeting

Rulemaking Items for Discussion at the December 2012 Meeting
The FINRA Board of Governors will consider the following rulemaking items at its December 2012 meeting. After the December 6 meeting, FINRA will notify firms via email about the Board's actions on these items and anticipated next steps, if any.

Conflicts of Interest Relating to Recruitment Compensation Practices
The Board will consider a proposed rule that would require disclosure to transferring customers of recruitment compensation packages offered to induce registered representatives to move from one firm to another.  

Equity Trade Reporting Requirements
The Board will consider proposed amendments to the FINRA trade reporting rules to reduce the time that member firms have to report OTC transactions in NMS stocks and OTC equity securities to FINRA.

Expungement for Unnamed Persons in Arbitration Claims
The Board will consider amendments to FINRA's proposal to permit persons who are the "subject of" allegations of sales practice violations made in customer-initiated arbitration claims, but who are not named as parties to the arbitration, to seek expungement relief by several means, including  initiating In re expungement proceedings at the conclusion of the underlying customer-initiated arbitration case.  The revised proposal incorporates changes suggested in comments to Regulatory Notice 12-18 as well as views of a FINRA committee. 

FOCUS Report Supplementary Schedule
The Board will consider a proposed supplementary schedule, issued pursuant to FINRA Rule 4524 (Supplemental FOCUS Information), that would provide detailed information of long and short inventory positions held by firms.

Information Request for Funding Portals Under the JOBS Act
The Board will consider a proposal to seek essential information from prospective funding portals intending to apply for membership with FINRA pursuant to the JOBS Act. Prospective funding portals would file the information with FINRA voluntarily until final SEC and FINRA rules governing funding portals are in place.

Wash Sales
The Board will consider proposed amendments to FINRA Rule 5210 (Publication of Transactions and Quotations) to address a firm's obligation to have policies and procedures in place that are reasonably designed to review the firm's trading activity for, and prevent, certain wash sale transactions (i.e., transactions in a security that involve no change in the beneficial ownership of the security).