FINRA Publishes 2022 Report on Its Examination and Risk Monitoring Program

FINRA adds new topics for 2022 and new material to previously covered topics.

On February 9, 2022, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) published its 2022 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”).  FINRA intends for the Report to be an up-to-date, evolving resource for firms that may help inform their compliance programs.  In this regard, the Report builds on the structure and content of last year’s report and adds new topics for 2022, including funding portals and crowdfunding offerings, trusted contact persons, disclosure of routing information, portfolio margin and intraday trading, and firm short positions and fails-to-receive in municipal securities, as well as new material, such as new exam findings and effective practices, to topics that FINRA covered in 2021.  Further, for each topical area covered in the Report, FINRA provides the relevant rule(s), key considerations for member firms’ compliance programs, noteworthy findings from recent examinations, including findings that are particularly relevant for new member firms in their first year of operation, effective practices that FINRA observed during its oversight, and additional resources that may be helpful to member firms in reviewing their supervisory procedures and controls and fulfilling their compliance obligations.  We discuss the report further in this Legal Update.