FINRA’s Top Priorities for 2021

FINRA’s Top Priorities for 2021

Early in the year, FINRA released their 2021 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program, which is designed to inform member firms’ compliance programs by providing annual insights from FINRA’s ongoing regulatory operations.

In this report detailing FINRA’s top priorities for 2021, FINRA addresses 18 regulatory areas which are grouped into 4 categories: (1) Firm Operations, (2) Communications and Sales, (3) Market Integrity, and (4) Financial Management. From these 18 regulatory areas, FINRA highlights 6 that they feel are the most important and affect a large portion of member firms, which are as follows:

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FINRA Scrutiny of Variable Annuities

Recently, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) has made it clear that it is keeping a close eye on the variable annuity (VA) sector.  The impetus for this scrutiny was the record setting fine related to variable annuities against MetLife Securities, Inc.  MetLife was fined $25 million for negligent misrepresentations and omissions in connection with variable annuity replacements.  To understand why this case lead to FINRA Read More…