No bi week for Reg Bi, no siree.
Bill St. Louis, executive vice president and head of the National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection Program at FINRA, recently announced the intention of the organization to hold Reg Bi compliance exams of 1000 broker-dealers, according to natlawreview.com. They’ll take place by year’s end.
While on the books for nearly three years, enforcement actions under the rules has generated little action from FINRA.
Christopher Kelly, FINRA’s acting head of enforcement, said there will be no new standard applied in the enforcement actions.
“Both Reg BI for broker-dealers and the IA fiduciary standard for investment advisers are drawn from key fiduciary principles that include an obligation to act in the retail investor’s best interest and not to place their own interests ahead of the investor’s interests,” the SEC states in a staff bulletin released in late April, reported investmentnews.com.
From the staff’s perspective: “although the specific application of Reg BI and the IA fiduciary standard may differ in some respects and be triggered at different times, they generally yield substantially similar results in terms of the ultimate responsibilities owed to retail investors.”