The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is consolidating its various compliance programs into a single framework, the regulator announced Monday.
The move is designed to reduce duplication, enhance oversight, and provide greater consistency for the industry, the self-regulatory organization says in a news release.
FINRA regulates more than 3,700 firms and 630,000 individual brokers, and regularly examines every firm for compliance with FINRA’s rules. Those examination responsibilities are currently divided among three different programs responsible for business conduct, financial and trading compliance.
“Implementing a unified program structure will help make us a more agile and risk-focused regulator while focusing on enhanced training and career opportunities for our staff,” says Bari Havlik, executive vice president of member supervision, FINRA, is a statement.
Havlik will oversee the effort. “This will be a significant undertaking that will continue through 2019, but our work is well underway,” she adds.
“After careful consideration and extensive feedback from internal and external stakeholders, we are moving toward a program structure that is based on the firms we oversee. By directing our expertise and resources in a more tailored way, we will become more effective at examining for compliance,” says Robert Cook, FINRA president and CEO, in a statement.