Skip to main content

Guidance

We offer guidance to firms in the form of podcasts, webinars, FAQs, reports, and more. Use the toggle below to find guidance by topic, type or date. 

5 A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V
Compliance Tools
These report cards will help firms track their compliance with key equity trading rules related to CAT, Best Execution Outside-of-the-Inside, Market Order Timeliness, Trade Reporting and Reg NMS trade throughs.

About FINRA
.floating-navBoxBorder { display: inline-block; width: 100%; margin: 10px; padding: 10px; background-color: #f2f2f2; border: 1px solid #d3d2d2; font-size:.75em; } .exec_quote { vertical-align: middle; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin: auto; width: 80%; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.1em; clear: both; } .exec_quote p { margin-top: 4px; }

Background

In response to the March 2017 Special Notice on Engagement


FAQ
The following frequently asked questions (FAQs) provide guidance on FINRA Rule 2111 (Suitability). This document consolidates the questions and answers in Regulatory Notices 12-55, 12-25 and 11-25, organized by topic.

FAQ
Every day at FINRA, we protect investors from misconduct, stop fraud and provide restitution to harmed customers. And we are successful—in part because customers and other members of the public provide information and crucial evidence during the course of an investigation.

Compliance Tools

The Firm Summary Scorecard provides an overview of certain performance and comparison statistics from each of the active individual report cards in one specific location. The Scorecard supplies data available in the respective report cards for the current month and the preceding month.

Report Glossary

The table below provides a reference description for all of the elements found in the Firm Summary Scorecard. (See Firm Summary Scorecard for a sample segment of the report.)

Term


Compliance Tools

Term

Description

Unequal Long and Short Positions


FAQ

General

  1. Do Rules 5110, 5121 and 2310 (the “Corporate Financing Rules”) apply to Regulation A offerings?

Compliance Tools
Activities relating to digital assets have attracted the interest of prospective and existing FINRA member firms. Digital asset securities with their related innovative technologies raise novel, complex and challenging regulatory and compliance questions, and challenges for both prospective and existing FINRA members.

FAQ

Q: Are members that provide FINRA an electronic feed (“eFeed”) of account transaction and position data via secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) for the accounts of FINRA employees also required to send duplicate account statements to FINRA under Rule 2070(a)? NEW


Compliance Tools
The New Account Application Template is a voluntary model brokerage account form that is provided as a resource to firms when they design or update their new account forms.

Compliance Tools
Report cards created for firms to monitor timeliness of Corporate Financing filings.These report cards display statistics about late filings submitted to Corporate Financing.

Video

While Americans as a whole are feeling less financial stress, making ends meet remains a daily struggle for women, millennials, African-Americans, Hispanics and those without a high school education, according to the NFCS, one of the largest and most comprehensive financial capability studies in the United States. The study measures four key components of financial capability—making ends meet, planning ahead, managing financial products and financial knowledge and decision making.


FAQ

In June 2009, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 09-31 to remind firms of their sales practice obligations relating to leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs). At the same time, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) issued guidance to the Canadian industry that is substantially similar to our Notice. In July we released a compliance podcast concerning the Notice and some of the issues that it raised.


About FINRA

FINRA has initiated a multi-phased effort to overhaul its registration and disclosure programs, including the Central Registration Depository (CRD) -- the central licensing and registration system that FINRA operates for the U.S. securities industry and its regulators, and that provides the backbone of BrokerCheck. In June 2018, we implemented the first phase of the transformation through a new WebCRD interface that highlights important information or activities requiring the immediate attention of firms, branches and individuals.


Compliance Tools

The Best Execution Outside-of-the-Inside (BE) report card is a monthly status report detailing the number of transactions reported to a FINRA Facility (i.e., a FINRA Trade Reporting Facility or FINRA's Alternative Display Facility) in which your firm participated that were executed Outside-of-the-Inside market in apparent violation of the Best Execution Rule. If non-compliance with the Best Execution Rule is found to exist, your firm may be found to be in violation of FINRA Rule 5310.


FAQ

The Frequently Asked Questions below are taken directly from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest and Form CRS FAQ pages. The below are FINRA’s best attempt to highlight the latest SEC FAQs, but additional FAQs may have been published that are not posted on this page. For the latest FAQs on Reg BI and Form CRS, please visit the SEC’s website.

SEC Frequently Asked Questions on Regulation Best Interest


Guidance
The Red Flags Rule requires that each "financial institution" or "creditor" --which include most member firms--implement a written program to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft in connection with the opening or maintenance of "covered accounts."

Compliance Tools
The Cross-Market Equities Supervision Manipulation Reports provide firms feedback on exceptions that were generated based on firms' order entries and trading activities in a given surveillance period.

FAQ
Frequently asked questions related to OATS reporting requirements to OTC NMS Stocks.

FAQ

The following FAQ is provided to facilitate firms' compliance with FINRA Rules 5190 (Notification Requirements for Offering Participants), 6275 (Withdrawal of Quotations) and 6435 (Withdrawal of Quotations in an OTC Equity Security in Compliance with SEC Regulation M). A comprehensive overview of these rules and related guidance is set forth in Regulatory Notice 08-74 and Regulatory Notice 12-19.


About FINRA

Background

In 2018, FINRA and the Securities Industry/Regulatory Council on Continuing Education (CE Council) launched an initiative to evaluate enhancements to the CE Program. The overall goal of the program review is to reflect advances in technology and learning theory while continuing to ensure that registered persons receive timely education on the securities business and the regulatory requirements applicable to their respective functions.


Compliance Tools

The OATS Compliance Report Card is a monthly status report on the number and percentage of:


Arbitration and Mediation

On this Page


Honoraria

FINRA will pay arbitrators honoraria in accordance with the Codes of Procedure. The following page answers the most commonly asked questions regarding honoraria.


FAQ
1. How do I register for the Financial Professional Gateway (FinPro)? Use the following steps to register:

FAQ
Following are "Frequently Asked Questions" regarding the Order Audit Trail System (OATS).