Action Taken on 35 of 51 Recommendations to Date
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today released a status report on the recommendations made in the FINRA Dispute Resolution Task Force’s Final Report issued in December 2015. In July 2014, FINRA had formed a 13-member task force composed of individuals representing a broad range of interests in securities dispute resolution to consider possible enhancements to its arbitration and mediation forum. FINRA released an interim status report in October 2016 and today’s report sets forth further progress made to date. FINRA has discussed all of the task force recommendations with the National Arbitration and Mediation Committee (NAMC). FINRA has taken action on 35 of the 51 recommendations; 16 are pending.
Robert Cook, FINRA’s President and CEO, said, “We are very pleased to report that we have already implemented many of the task force’s recommendations, and we are diligently responding to the remaining recommendations. Many of the recommendations we are putting in place are meaningful changes that will position the forum to better serve all parties involved. The NAMC and FINRA staff are doing an effective job of comprehensively reviewing and promptly taking action on the recommendations.”
Many of the recommendations, particularly those involving forum transparency, arbitrator recruitment and training, and case administration processes did not require rulemaking and were implemented in 2016. Among those, the report notes that FINRA received 945 arbitrator applications in 2016, far exceeding its goal to recruit 750 new arbitrators. FINRA’s latest arbitrator demographic survey, which was conducted by an external consulting firm, showed particular progress in adding women and African-Americans to the roster. In 2016, 33 percent of the arbitrators added were women (compared to 26 percent in 2015) and 14 percent were African-American (compared to 4 percent in 2015).
FINRA commenced the rulemaking process on six of the recommendations. Of those, the SEC has already approved two proposals related to the number of public arbitrators on lists and motions to dismiss; there are four proposals in various stages in the rulemaking process, including a proposal addressing the task force recommendation to develop an intermediate form of adjudication for small claims.
The task force’s recommendations were reviewed by the NAMC, FINRA’s standing Board advisory committee, which recommended items to implement immediately, items that would require further discussion and items that may not be feasible.
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, regulates securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business – from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms, writing rules, enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws, and informing and educating the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and firms. For more information, please visit www.finra.org.