Category: FINRA

Annual Audit Season

Annual Audit Season

Posted on by SCM Communications

When a broker dealer hears the words ā€œannual audit seasonā€, it can feel like the initial effects of hay fever or pollen season hitting you smack in the face. It is not fun. You may break out in sweats, have night terrors, or worse yet, not have a great understanding of the necessity of an annual audit. Two of the most important aspects of annual audit season are as follows: having a great financial bookkeeper and having communicative Financial Operations Principal (FINOP). With these two professionals in your corner, your broker dealer should be able to rest easy during this Read more about Annual Audit Season[…]

A summary of requirements for Broker Dealers.

Financial Reporting for Broker Dealers

Posted on by SCM Communications

Financial Reporting for Broker Dealers. When you decide to enter the highly regulated broker dealer world, you must arrange to have the properly licensed people registered with your firm. One of those is a FINOP (Financial and Operations Principal). FINOPā€™s have either a Series 27 license or a Series 28 license. Your broker dealerā€™s FINOP is required to submit various regulatory filings to FINRA. Note that hiring a bookkeeper or a certified public accountant will not fulfill the requirement of having a licensed FINOP registered with your broker dealer. A new broker dealer, which is defined as a broker dealer Read more about Financial Reporting for Broker Dealers[…]

FINRA announces OFAC search tool is retiring.

FINRA OFAC Search Tool Retiring

Posted on by SCM Communications

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (ā€œFINRAā€) provides an OFAC search tool that many industry member firmā€™s use as part of their onboarding process for risk-based background reviews. As of January 3, 2023, FINRAā€™s OFAC search tool will be retired. We recommend that you notify all staff that normally do OFAC checks for your Firm so they can become familiar with the OFAC tool available through the United States Department of Treasury. What is OFAC? The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the government agency that maintains the OFAC list. The OFAC list is a publicly available list and is made Read more about FINRA OFAC Search Tool Retiring[…]

FINRA Unscripted Podcast

FINRA Enforcement: Bringing Cases Against Individual Brokers

Posted on by admin

On September 20th, FINRA released the podcast FINRA Enforcement: Bringing Cases Against Individual Brokers. Ā This podcast provides background information on how the enforcement process works against individual registered representatives. Mr. Chris Kelly, Deputy Head of Enforcement, was the guest on the show. Below is a summary of key considerations and takeaways for Firmā€™s and Brokers. Type of Cases Brought Against Individual Brokers Mr. Kelly noted that there are a wide range of cases brought against an individual broker. These can include failure to report an outside business activity, private securities transactions (aka selling away from the firm), fraud, excessive and Read more about FINRA Enforcement: Bringing Cases Against Individual Brokers[…]

Net Capital

Letā€™s Talk Aggregate Indebtedness

Posted on by SCM Communications

Every broker dealer has at least one thing in common ā€“ Minimum Net Capital Requirements (ā€œMNCRā€). Whether the firm has a $5,000 MNCR or a $100,000 MNCR, the firmā€™s FINOP must ensure that the broker dealer is at all times (including intra-day) meeting the requirements set forth by FINRA with SEA Rule 15c3-1. The minimum net capital requirement is going to be the higher of the figure set forth by FINRA based upon the type of broker dealer the firm is OR the total of the firmā€™s Aggregate Indebtedness. Today, letā€™s specifically talk about the Aggregate Indebtedness to Net Capital Read more about Letā€™s Talk Aggregate Indebtedness[…]