Office address: 1700 K St NW, Washington, DC 20006
Website: finra.org
Year established: 2007 Company type: non-government organization
Employees: 4,200+
Expertise: securities regulation, broker-dealer supervision, market surveillance, enforcement and disciplinary actions, investor education, dispute resolution and arbitration, trade reporting transparency, cybersecurity and fraud detection
Parent company: N/A Key people: Robert Cook (CEO); Robert Colby (chief legal officer); Todd Diganci (CFO); Marcia Asquith (EVP); Ornella Bergeron, Denise Dombay, and Maureen Delaney (SVPs)
Financing status: N/A
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a Washington-based self-regulatory body that supervises more than 3,200 broker-dealers. It enforces rules, monitors trading, and runs tools such as TRACE, BrokerCheck, and the consolidated audit trail. In 2024, it posted $99 million net income and unveiled a crypto education program.
FINRA was officially formed in 2007 through a strategic merger. The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) joined forces with the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) regulatory division to operate as one.
This created a unified, independent regulator for America's securities industry. The move modernized oversight for a changing market and strengthened investor protections nationwide.
FINRA's story actually began decades earlier, in an era of economic recovery. The NASD registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1939. This registration formalized what traders had been doing informally for generations.
Congress had established the SEC in 1934 following the devastating market crash of 1929. Two years later, lawmakers passed the Maloney Act to regulate off-exchange securities trading more effectively.
The NASD spent 68 years evolving to match the changing securities landscape and technology. By the early 2000s, fragmented regulatory oversight became increasingly inefficient for a modern industry.
The 2007 merger created the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority by combining the NASD's institutional knowledge with the NYSE's regulatory expertise. This unified regulator now oversees all brokers and firms across US markets comprehensively.
As 2024 closed, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued substantial penalties against three major firms. These companies faced settlements for sending inaccurate trade information and filing flawed Focus reports. Year-end enforcement actions let both regulators and firms resolve lingering compliance issues cleanly.companies faced settlements for sending inaccurate trade information and filing flawed Focus reports. Year-end enforcement actions let both regulators and firms resolve lingering compliance issues cleanly.
Into 2025, FINRA's Regulatory Oversight Report highlighted three major threats to the industry. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities from third-party technology providers topped concerns alongside AI compliance challenges. Investment fraud schemes also continue to shift as bad actors devise new ways to deceive clients.
FINRA regulates broker-dealers and investment firms in America by combining enforcement with educational resources to protect investors and maintain market integrity:
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority also addresses emerging threats like cybersecurity risks and artificial intelligence compliance challenges. The organization remains focused on supporting a healthy, trustworthy securities market for all participants.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reports that investor protection and market stability form the core of its mission. The regulator values its employees and delivers market-rate compensation with benefits such as:
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority also says that it does not discriminate in hiring based on disability, veteran status, and other protected classifications under federal, state, and local law. It complies with 41 CFR regulations protecting disabled individuals and veterans.
Robert W. Cook is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's president and CEO, with prior experience directing the SEC's trading and markets division. Before FINRA, Cook was a partner at a law firm in Washington. His education includes a JD from Harvard Law School, a master's degree from the London School of Economics, and an undergraduate from Harvard.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's leadership team includes the following key executives:
These executives manage the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's daily operations while upholding the organization's core mission to protect investors.
FINRA launched a targeted probe into broker-dealers underwriting small foreign company IPOs to combat pump-and-dump schemes. The regulator required detailed supervisory procedures and due diligence records for offerings between January 2023 and September 2025. This enforcement action positions the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as a proactive market protector against cross-border securities fraud.
The organization also penalized First Trust Portfolios, an ETF provider, in 2025 with a $10 million settlement for excessive gifts to broker-dealer representatives. The violations spanned from 2018 through February 2024 and included luxury courtside tickets and concert events. This enforcement action illustrates FINRA's commitment to preventing investor harm through strict non-cash compensation oversight.
Finra is seeking to shut down a broker-dealer it alleges is selling fraudulent oil and gas private placements.
Finra claims Pinnacle Partners is continuing to mislead potential investors about oil and gas private placements – even though the firm has already been hit with a cease-and-desist order. The firm's boss, however, denies all charges lodged by the industry regulator.
Ameriprise Financial Inc. is willing to spend nearly $200 million to bail out its beleaguered independent-broker-dealer subsidiary, Securities America Inc., because the spectacle of its collapse would be a huge embarrassment for the financial planning giant and draw the ire of regulators, according to securities industry experts
Securities America Inc. could go out of business if a federal judge does not approve a $21 million class action settlement related to private-placement litigation against the company
Southwest Securities Inc., which was fined this month over payments to municipal bond advisers, will pay $650,000 to resolve claims of improper short sales that caused a $6.3 million loss for the firm, according to Finra
Finra is prepared to spank the broker-dealer arm of one of the largest sponsors of non-traded real estate investment trusts for allegedly failing to meet standards for advertising and keeping client information safe
The good news for Ahmass Fakahany, a former top executive of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. is that March 24, a Finra panel awarded him $1.2 million in an arbitration claim against his former firm
UBS Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay $10.75 million in fines and restitution to settle Finra allegations that its advisers misled clients about the “principal protection” feature of a Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bond product sold a few months before that firm filed for bankruptcy.
The fines imposed last week by Finra on broker-dealers and executives involved in the sale of failed private placements are likely the first of many to emerge from regulators' crackdown on the sale of the securities
Jefferies Group Inc. (JEF) agreed to pay about $2 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims that three employees failed to disclose conflicts of interest while selling auction-rate securities.
Amount equals about 10% of total client losses on Reg D notes later deemed fraudulent by the SEC
National Securities receives notice of imminent enforcement action; scrutiny likely stems from sale of Provident Royalties notes
BrightScope's new website, which offers investors information about advisers, has the investment community up in arms. Some advisers claim their information is inaccurate or outdated -- but they don't want to pay to have it corrected. Said one: 'I feel like I am being held hostage.'
Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, was ordered to pay more than $51 million to a group of investors in its MAT and ASTA municipal-bond hedge funds, which regulators began examining more than two years ago.
