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.
A rep formerly affiliated with First Allied Securities Inc. says he will fight SEC charges that he churned client accounts and made unauthorized and unsuitable trades for two institutional clients, resulting in commissions of $14.2 million.
The real estate boom and bust is hanging over many independent broker-dealers and their financial advisers as the market for non-traded REITs soured this year.
A legion of intrepid financial advisers are twittering, linking in and in many other ways harnessing the power of the Internet to network socially in a bid to expand their practices.
Terra Nova Financial LLC, a Chicago-based broker, has been fined $400,000 by federal regulators who say the firm made unauthorized payments to clients, including money to cover one hedge fund manager's visits to a “gentleman's club.”
The dispute between LPL Investment Holdings Inc. and Pacific Life Insurance Co. over liability for rogue brokers is a reminder that unseen risks can be part of any acquisition, no matter how well-vetted, according to lawyers and investment bankers.
In the coming months, state securities regulators will focus on increasing the threshold for state regulation of investment advisers to $100 million, according to Texas securities commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford.
A former GunnAllen Financial Inc. and Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. broker pleaded guilty this month to two federal charges, one of mail fraud and the other of filing a false tax return, and he faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
Life insurance agents' advocacy groups teamed up on Friday to ask Connecticut Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to reconsider a legislative provision that would require life agents to become registered investment advisers.
Smith Barney has hit a former adviser with a lawsuit, an arbitration claim and a restraining order, claiming that the rep improperly pursued clients and used confidential information after he resigned from the brokerage arm of New York-based Citigroup Inc. at midmonth.
William Blair & Co. LLC and two ex-brokers at the firm have been socked with a $1.1 million arbitration decision that centered on two brokers' setting up a phony e-mail address where they sent statements from the brokerage account of an 88-year-old widow.
Finra has opened up its checkbook to lobby Congress for authority over investment advisers.
Investment advisory groups, state regulators and consumer advocates last week cheered a pledge by the House Financial Services Committee's chairman to defeat a measure that could expand Finra's reach over advisers.
The industry effort to regulate financial planning as a profession has support from within — but it won't escape opposition from other sects of the financial services community, several industry leaders said today.
Money managers are fighting legislation that would — for the first time — subject the roughly 4,000 firms associated with broker-dealers to regulation by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The Securities and Exchange Commission would be required to issue rules prohibiting or limiting mandatory-arbitration clauses in securities contracts under draft legislation introduced last week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
