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FINRA’s New Competency Exams a ‘Significant’ Event for Some BDs

18:43 27 September in In the News by rafferty

September 27, 2018 By Melanie Waddell, Washington Watch, October issue of Investment Advisor Magazine Broker-dealers have been flooding the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority with questions about the restructuring of the self-regulator’s competency exam program, which takes effect Oct. 1. FINRA released in mid-September FAQ guidance on its qualification and registration requirements as set forth in Rules 1210 through 1240. The broker-dealer regulator is creating a Securities Industry Essentials (SIE or Essentials) exam and revising the rep-level exams. FINRA announced last July that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the rule change, intended to streamline competency exams to, in part, facilitate opportunities for professionals seeking to enter or re-enter the securities industry. Robert Cook, FINRA’s president and CEO, said last year that the new exam approach “would give individuals seeking to enter the securities industry the opportunity...

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Number of BDs, Reps Drops for Second Straight Year, New FINRA Report Says

00:12 15 August in In the News by rafferty

August 09, 2018 By Melanie Waddell, ThinkAdvisor Small BDs "struggle with keeping up with burdensome FINRA requirements," recruiter Jon Henschen said. The number of broker-dealers and registered representatives continues to decline, with firms registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority dropping to 3,726 in 2017 from 3,835 in 2016. The number of registered reps fell last year as well, dropping to 630,132 in 2017 from 635,902 in 2016. That’s according to the broker-dealer regulator’s just-released 2018 Industry Snapshot, a first annual statistical report on the brokerage firms, registered individuals and market activity that FINRA regulates. FINRA states that it is sharing the statistical overview as part of fulfilling transparency goals under the FINRA360 initiative. Data ranges from the size and geographic distribution of the firms FINRA regulates to the number of individuals in the industry, along with...

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FINRA to Toughen Sanctions on Repeat Violators

15:44 08 May in In the News by rafferty

May 3, 2018 By Melanie Waddell, ThinkAdvisor The revised Sanction Guidelines also tell adjudicators to consider arbitration actions filed by clients against a broker. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is revising its Sanction Guidelines to instruct adjudicators in the disciplinary process to consider “customer-initiated arbitrations” that result in adverse arbitration awards or settlements when assessing sanctions. The broker-dealer self-regulator also advises adjudicators in Regulatory Notice 18-17 to impose “progressively escalating sanctions” on repeat violators to deter future misconduct. As it stands now, FINRA’s Sanction Guidelines instruct that a respondent’s disciplinary history should trigger higher sanctions when that disciplinary history: (a) is similar to the misconduct in the current disciplinary case; or (b) evidences a “reckless disregard for regulatory requirements, investor protection, or market integrity.” The newly revised guidelines adds a section instructing adjudicators to consider “customer-initiated...