FINRA Chief Highlights Key Enforcement Objectives
In a blog post, FINRA's Head of Enforcement, Bill St. Louis, described his objectives to: (i) protect investors and markets; (ii) enhance the transparency of FINRA Enforcement to external stakeholders; (iii) increase efficiency and reduce the time to complete cases; and (iv) improve collaboration across FINRA’s regulatory operations.
He highlighted these efforts:
- Protecting investors and markets. Mr. St. Louis said that he is focusing resources on enforcement actions that are most impactful for investors and markets, particularly cases that involve senior and vulnerable adults, customer harm, recidivist behavior and firms and brokers with a history of misconduct. He said FINRA also places an emphasis on other cases, including Regulation Best Interest, Best Execution, Targeted examinations and the Consolidated Audit Trail.
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Enhancing the transparency of FINRA Enforcement to external stakeholders. Mr. St. Lous said FINRA is considering ways to provide visibility into the enforcement process by helping firms and their associated persons (including individuals who may appear pro se in FINRA’s disciplinary’s process) gain a better understanding of how investigations work and the built in the procedural safeguards.
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Increasing efficiency and reducing the time to complete cases. Mr. St. Louis noted that the time it takes to conclude a case is often mentioned in ongoing conversations with member firms and outside counsel. He said delays occur due to (i) the complex nature of cases, (ii) new rule sets that FINRA wants to get right and (iii) document production delays. He said that FINRA is planning to have more frequent touchpoints with potential respondents and explore ways to better leverage subject matter experts to handle certain matters.
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Improving collaboration across FINRA’s regulatory operations. Mr. St. Louis said that FINRA is enhancing the quality and efficiency of its work by addressing how regulatory operations and functions work with each other, and how FINRA communicates and shares information.