FINRA’s Board of Governors met on May 6 and 7 in New York City. During the meeting, the Board received updates on FINRA’s regulatory operations, including a status report on FINRA’s 529 plan self-reporting initiative and draft guidance around when Enforcement would grant firms credit for extraordinary cooperation during the enforcement process. That guidance will be published in a future Regulatory Notice. In addition, the Board’s Audit Committee reviewed a draft of FINRA’s Annual Financial Report, which the full Board will review and consider for approval prior to its publication this summer.
As previewed in FINRA CEO Robert Cook’s May 3 email to firms, the Board’s Regulatory Policy Committee considered two rule proposals: (1) proposed amendments to the Discovery Guide to require the production of insurance information in arbitration; and (2) modifications to the proposed outside activities requirements rule as the result of a retrospective rule review. The committee directed FINRA staff to gather additional information for its consideration at a future Board meeting.
“There was a vigorous discussion with respect to both rule proposals, and on both items we determined that we would discuss them further at a later meeting,” said Governor Elisse B. Walter, who chairs the Board’s Regulatory Policy Committee.
More information regarding the Board's operations, including the membership and responsibilities of its committees, is available at www.finra.org/governance.