Guidance
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Requirements under NASD Rule 3030 (formerly Article III, Section 43) for investment seminar activities conducted by dually registered persons that charge fees from participants.
Clarification of NASD Notice to Members
94-44 to situations in which a dually registered person maintains discretionary trading authority, determines portfolio changes, and prepares trade instructions for customer accounts and charges the accounts an asset-based fee.
Whether a proposed standby purchase agreement entered into between affiliate of a member and an issuer in connection with a public offering of the issuer's common stock could constitute an option.
Cash rebates issued to pension plan customers with respect to secondary market transactions in outstanding securities (under former Article III, Section 24, now Rule 2740 and IM-2740).
Overview
When considering their obligations to provide all available breakpoint discounts on sales of Class A shares of front-end load mutual funds, member firms may review the following Breakpoint Checklist and Breakpoint Worksheet, which may help member firms evaluate their breakpoint compliance programs and confirm whether they are capturing all relevant categories of information to provide customers all available breakpoint discounts.
Background
In March 2017, FINRA's Board of Governors established a new standing committee, the Regulatory Operations Oversight Committee (ROOC), to advise and assist the Board in providing oversight on FINRA's regulatory operations, and supplementing FINRA's broader self-evaluation through FINRA360. This includes providing guidance on the full breadth of FINRA's regulatory operations, including Member Supervision, Market Regulation and Enforcement, among others. The ROOC does not engage in discussions regarding individual enforcement matters.
Regulatory Obligations
Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1 (Net Capital Rule) requires firms to maintain net capital at specific levels to protect customers and creditors from monetary losses that can occur when firms fail.
The Registered Representative Composition Report is produced on a quarterly basis and displays trends in the profile of registered representatives associated with the firm. The report allows firms to compare their statistics to those of the industry. The data in this report comes from Web CRD®.
This report is generally published approximately 5 weeks after the last business day of the quarter. Users who have not opted-out of notifications will receive an email indicating that new reports have been published.
FINRA has made a number of changes in the area of regulatory policy to improve the policy development process and better ensure that our rules reflect current industry dynamics.
The Customer Complaint Report is a quarterly report that displays trends in complaints reported to FINRA's Rule 4530 Application each quarter, pursuant to FINRA Rule 4530. Note: prior to July 1, 2011, complaints were submitted pursuant to NASD Rule 3070 and NYSE Rule 351. When a customer complaint is submitted to FINRA, the submitter must identify the product and problem classification detailed in the complaint. The report allows a firm to see their complaints in two views, by problem identified in the complaint and by product for which the complaint was submitted.
NASAA, the SEC, and FINRA co-hosted a free webinar on identifying and reporting the financial exploitation of senior investors. Firms can use this webinar to help train associated persons about how to identify and report financial exploitation of senior and vulnerable adult investors.