With this week’s release of FINRA’s guidance on social media sites for securities traders, I thought it would be interesting to look at how the futures trading regulatory body is dealing with the issues. It turns out that the National Futures Association recently amended its rules to address social media and released new interpretive...
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Securities firms and brokers have been looking for guidance on how they can use social networking sites. Actually most industries have been trying to figure out what they can and cannot do with these sites. The difference is that the FINRA limitations on communicating with the public make it very difficult to use the...
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Think Before You Tweet! What are the challenges for broker/dealers and investment advisers trying to use social networking sites? Complinet hosted a webinar on this topic with Clifford Kirsch from Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and Debbie Corej, Vice President, Compliance – Insurance Division, Prudential. Clifford started the discussion by pointing out the need to think...
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Wall Street bankers and analysts increasingly want to use social networking to connect and interact with customers. But financial services companies have a hard time trying to comply with the compliance and regulatory requirements. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn provide new ways for financial service firms to connect, inform and interact...
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Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) posted a regulatory notice  on proposed new rules governing member communications with the public: Regulatory Notice 09-55. The new rules would replace current NASD Rules 2210 and 2211, the Interpretive Materials that follow NASD Rule 2210, and portions of Incorporated NYSE Rule 472. The proposal would replace the existing six categories...
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My notes, live, from the Richard Ketchum keynote at the Compliance Week Conference. Mr. Ketchum is the newly named chairman and CEO of FINRA. It is a terribly important time as financial markets are in the process of transformation. It was two years ago when the first signs of the credit crisis appeared. The silver...
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FINRA announced that they have created a new Office of the Whisteblower to expedite review of high-risk tips.  FINRA Senior Vice President Cameron Funkhouser will oversee this new office. What’s not clear to me is how this new initiative differs from the existing File a Regulatory Tip procedure.  According to the press release, this...
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FINRA has published a Guide to the Internet for Registered Representatives. It paints a difficult picture for registered representatives wanting to use Web 2.0 tools. FINRA breaks internet activity into five main group for purposes or regulatory requirements: Publicly available Web sites (including banner advertisements, blogs and bulletin boards) are considered advertisements. An email or instant...
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You can find a seried of FINRA Compliance Podcasts on their Compliance Podcast webpage and from iTunes.  Last summer they have a few on Customer Identification Programs and Anti-Money Laundering programs: Anti-Money Laundering for Operations Staff (July 7, 2008) AML – Customer Identification Program (Part 1) (June 16, 2008) AML – Customer Identification Program (Part 2) (July 14,...
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