FINRA Chair and CEO Richard Ketchum outlined successful FINRA initiatives to strengthen oversight programs, increase market transparency and educate investors.

In FINRA's Annual Report, Mr. Ketchum noted many accomplishments, including:

  • expansion of the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine ("TRACE") to include agency debentures and securitized products, which increased the total number of securities reported to TRACE from approximately 30,000 to more than 1.4 million;
  • receipt of more than 4,200 calls from seniors through the Securities Helpline for Seniors, which referred more than 200 matters to state, federal and foreign regulators, and made more than 70 referrals to Adult Protective Services in 15 states under mandatory reporting laws;
  • examination of senior-investor issues through two reports: the National Senior Investor Initiative Report, issued jointly with the SEC, and the Report on the FINRA Securities Helpline for Seniors;
  • the bringing of 1,512 disciplinary actions against registered brokers and firms, and levying of $93.8 million in fines;
  • the development of proposals to address the results of the retrospective rule review assessments of the "Communications with the Public" and "Gifts, Gratuities and Non-Cash Compensation" rule sets;
  • the retrospective assessment of the Membership Application Rules;
  • the review of conflicts of interest rules related to moving assets to a transferring registered representative's new firm;
  • the issuance of rules that govern funding portals;
  • the development of the "High-Risk Broker Program," which uses incoming regulatory intelligence, such as broker terminations, complaints, tips, arbitrations and field reports from ongoing exams, in order to pinpoint brokers requiring prompt investigation;
  • the enhancements to the Continuing Education Program;
  • referrals to the SEC that were related to the cross-market surveillance program;
  • the enhancements to Alternative Trading Systems and dark-pool volume transparency; and
  • the launching of TheAlertInvestor.com, a digital magazine intended for individual investors.

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