Over the past several years, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) has sought to deepen retail investors’ awareness of its BrokerCheck public disclosure system by issuing a series of rule proposals that would link this system to its member firms’ websites and other of their social media presence pages.1 BrokerCheck allows a retail investor to access information such as education, licenses and disciplinary history about a registered representative or broker-dealer before choosing to do business with that person or firm.
Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved FINRA’s proposal to amend Rule 2210 to require each member firm’s website to include a readily apparent reference and hyperlink to BrokerCheck on its initial webpage or any other webpage that contains a professional profile of a registered representative who conducts securities business with retail investors.2
