FINRA Sets Effective Date for Amendments to Rules Governing Communications with the Public

FINRA notified member firms that the SEC has approved amendments to FINRA rules governing communications with the public. The amendments revise the filing requirements in FINRA Rule 2210 ("Communications with the Public") and FINRA Rule 2214 ("Requirements for the Use of Investment Analysis Tools"), and the content and disclosure requirements in FINRA Rule 2213 ("Requirements for the Use of Bond Mutual Fund Volatility Ratings").

​In part, the amendments provide that:

• new FINRA member communications used in electronic or public media be filed with FINRA 10 business days after use or amendment, rather than 10 business days prior to use;

• FINRA will exempt registered investment company shareholder reports filed with the SEC from the need to be filed with FINRA;

• issuer-prepared offering documents are not required to be filed;

• ranking and comparison backup materials concerning advertisements of fund performance will have to be retained but not filed by a firm;

• generic registered investment company communications that do not promote a particular fund or fund family will not have to be filed;

• material on investment analysis tools and templates will not have to be filed;

• certain templated communications filed previously with FINRA will not have to be filed again if they have been updated only with recent statistical or other non-narrative information; and

• filing requirements associated with bond mutual fund volatility ratings will be changed from 10 days prior to use to 10 days post-use, and required content generally will be reduced.

The final amendments will become effective on January 9, 2017.