Federal Register: SEC Approves FINRA Proposed Technical Change to Customer Account Information Rule

The SEC approved FINRA's proposal to permit broker-dealers to obtain electronically - rather than manually - signatures of personnel exercising discretionary trading authority over customer accounts. FINRA will announce the effective date of the rule change in a forthcoming Regulatory Notice.

As previously covered, FINRA acknowledged that while manual signatures were historically required to assist firms in verifying the identity of personnel, the requirement for manual signatures has become obsolete in light of technological advances in the authentication of electronic signatures.