Before You Invest Your Money

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is currently seeking to expand its Brokercheck tool. Brokercheck gives individuals access to professional information regarding registered brokers and firms. The hope is that investors will use this tool to better get to know the people and companies with whom they are placing their money.

FINRA is seeking to expand this information to include customer complaints reported publicly and to extend the public disclosure period for the full record of a broker who leaves the industry from two to ten years. Also, in a move to go beyond the financial world, FINRA seeks to add to Brokercheck criminal convictions and civil and arbitration judgments involving former brokers.

Richard Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of FINRA, believes that the additional information will help investors, “who are considering whether to conduct, or continue to conduct, business with a particular securities firm or broker. Just as important, they will provide valuable information about persons who have left the securities industry, often not of their own accord, but who can still cause great harm to the investing public.” The new information would include complaint made back from 1999 when electronic filing of broker information began.