Proposed Rule Change to Establish a Short-Form Membership Application Process and Partial Waiver of the New Member Application Fee for Firms that Must Become FINRA Members Due to Amended Exchange Act Rule 15b9-1

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) a proposed rule change to adopt (1) FINRA Interpretive Material 1013-3 (“IM-1013-3”) that would set forth a short-form membership application process for firms that apply for FINRA membership due to the amendments to Exchange Act Rule 15b9-1,  adopted by the Commission on August 23, 2023;  and (2) FINRA Interpretive Material Section 4(e) of Schedule A to the FINRA By-Laws (“IM-Section 4(e)”) that would provide a partial waiver of the new membership application fee to those firms that are eligible to apply for FINRA membership pursuant to proposed IM-1013-3.  Proposed IM-1013-3 and IM-Section 4(e) would be available only to SEC-registered non-FINRA member firms that apply for FINRA membership due to the Commission’s Exchange Act Rule 15b9-1 amendments and, as of August 23, 2023, have been a member of a national securities exchange with which FINRA has had a regulatory service agreement (“RSA”) for the 12-month period prior to August 23, 2023 (“Eligible Firms”).