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 may have given broker-dealers and registered representatives a reprieve of sorts last year as the amount in fines and enforcement actions it levied against firms plummeted.
Independent registered representatives and their spouses soon could face unprecedented scrutiny into their personal finances.
A New York Congressman has introduced a bill that will try to preserve state authority over indexed annuities, pushing back against a recent rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As the stock market plummeted in 2008 and chaos reigned on Wall Street, Finra regulators found less reason to levy fines and enforcement actions against broker-dealers and their registered reps, according to a study.
Smith Barney is not letting at least one of its brokers break away without a fight.
The following edited transcript is from “Surviving an SEC audit after Madoff,” an </i>InvestmentNews<i> webcast held May 19
Broker-dealers may face higher costs connected with customer disputes if revised legislation that would do away with mandatory securities arbitration passes both houses of Congress and is signed into law.
The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. today announced that slightly more than half (52.3%) of the 2,063 individuals who sat for the March 20-21, 2009, CFP certification examination passed the test.
Investors and financial advisers who are stuck holding auction rate securities bought from “downstream” broker-dealers have begun to step up their legal claims against the major firms that marketed the investments as safe.
Keeping track of rogue brokers is a tricky business, particularly when they leave or are booted from the confines of the securities industry, but keep peddling financial products.
The service looks into the background of financial advisers through civil and criminal background checks, credit reports, financial liens and bankruptcy proceedings and more.
In another sign that industry-affiliated arbitrators may be on their way out, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. wants to stop using industry panelists in most cases involving a registered representative and a brokerage firm.
Finra chief Richard Ketchum's call for a fiduciary standard for all advisers, even as he indicated that he would not want to significantly alter suitability rules for broker-dealers, highlights the difficulties inherent in harmonizing the two regulatory standards as the strife-torn industry moves towards establishing a single self-regulatory organization for advisers.
The lack of a uniform fingerprinting requirement for insurance agents and brokers may serve as new ammunition in the battle over federal regulation of the insurance industry.
Ameriprise Financial Inc. on Friday stepped back from receiving TARP money, less than 24 hours after the Department of the Treasury cleared it to participate in the program.
