The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has released an enhanced version of BrokerCheck that allows investors to more quickly access and more intuitively understand the professional background of investment professionals.
"Investors using BrokerCheck will encounter a more user-friendly interface that allows them to quickly find information that can help them decide if an investment professional is right for them," said Derek Linden, FINRA Executive Vice President, Registration and Disclosure.
Now investors can search both the BrokerCheck and Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) record of any securities professional or firm directly on the FINRA homepage. The BrokerCheck search results are presented in a graphical timeline, illustrating a more user-friendly view of the industry professional's employment status and history, industry registrations, and any reportable events such as customer disputes or disciplinary actions that may have occurred during his or her career.
FINRA will also make the new BrokerCheck widget available to third party websites, allowing visitors to those websites direct access to securities professionals' or firms' BrokerCheck or IAPD reports without having to visit the FINRA or SEC websites. Investors can obtain more information about, and the disciplinary record of, any FINRA-registered broker or brokerage firm by using FINRA's BrokerCheck. FINRA makes BrokerCheck available at no charge. In 2012, members of the public used this service to conduct 14.6 million reviews of broker or firm records. Investors can access BrokerCheck at www.finra.org/brokercheck or by calling (800) 289-9999.