FINRA Reports on the Use of Fines Imposed on Member Firms

FINRA collected $59.8 million in fines from member firms in 2024, but spent $89.3 million "in fines-eligible expenditures." FINRA said the difference was funded through its reserves and excess operating results.

In its "Report on Use of 2024 Fine Monies," FINRA said $67.6 million of the $89.3 went toward "[c]apital initiatives or nonrecurring strategic expenditures that promote more effective and efficient regulatory oversight by FINRA" and that enable "improved compliance by member firms." These initiatives included investments in advanced analytics; risk-based examination tools; investigative workflows; and systems to support advertising compliance, corporate finance filings, and fingerprinting requirements. FINRA said the remaining $21.7 million was spent on educating investors; promoting compliance by member firms through education and compliance resources; and ensuring FINRA employees are highly trained in the markets, products, and businesses it regulates.

FINRA said it also invested in "a multi-year initiative to improve the Multi-Product Platform" and to build the Securities Lending and Transparency Engine. In addition, FINRA said it enhanced surveillance tools "to detect a wide variety of compliance issues and suspicious conduct across markets," and began integrating its insider trading platform into the broader surveillance platform.

FINRA emphasized that it "does not target any minimum dollar amount of fines to be issued" and that its "operating budget assumes that zero fines are imposed."