Coming soon: More Finra registration requirements?

Finra is proposing registration requirements for some back-office supervisory positions. In a notice for comment released today, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. proposed a new "operations professional" registration category, together with a new qualifying exam. Among those individuals needing the new registration would be people engaging in or supervising sales and trading support, the handling of customer assets, developing and approving valuation models, managing trade confirmations and account statements, and overseeing securities lending and financial regulatory reporting. These "activities often have a meaningful connection to client funds, accounts and transactions," Finra said in its notice. Many individuals who already hold various supervisory licenses would be exempt from the new registration requirement. Joel Blumenschein, president of Freedom Investors Corp., a small broker-dealer in Brookfield, Wis., questioned the need for the new registration requirement. Although the proposed operations registration would likely be applied to those employees in a supervisory capacity, "here at my firm, everybody does what every one else does, so we'll pretty much have to get them all licensed," he said. Comments on the proposal are due by July 12.