Preparing your 2022 Firm Element Training Program – Step Two: the Written Training Plan

Adam Schaub Vice President, Platform Product Management RegEd, Inc. FINRA Rule 1240 requires each of its member firms to conduct an annual evaluation and prioritization of its registered persons’ training needs, develop a written training plan, and implement and track completion of that plan.  Our first article covered the Needs Analysis, and this article covers the second step, which is to develop your firm’s written training plan.  Similar to our guidance on the Needs Analysis, if your prior year’s plan was successful, you can use that as your template for 2022.  If planning Firm Element is a new task for you, […]

Best Practices for Annual Compliance Questionnaires

While the Annual Compliance Questionnaire (“ACQ”) could be viewed simply as an online survey to collect data about a firm’s financial professionals (“FPs”), to Compliance organizations the ACQ serves as a valuable tool that protects firms against regulatory risk in a myriad of ways. The content of ACQs varies by broker/dealer, but the tool itself can be leveraged for the following purposes for all firms: Data Collection. In its most basic form, the ACQ is used to collect general information about the FP. However, the range can be expanded to collect information about their branch, the technology they use, their […]

Coronavirus COVID-19: Regulatory Activity

Updates are ordered in chronological order, top to bottom, from most recent to oldest.  RegEd has not included the date each update was issued so as to avoid confusion with other dates cited by issuing agencies. State Activity Developments from State Departments of Insurance and Securities as well as other state-based agencies. Federal Activity Developments from the SEC, FINRA, MSRB, and other federal regulatory agencies.                   Testing Administration Updates Developments from test administration companies. How RegEd Can Help The RegEd team and our solutions can help you keep your compliance and credentialing […]

Key Takeaways: FINRA’s 2019 Report on Examination Findings and Observations

On October 16, 2019, FINRA published its 2019 Report on FINRA Examination Findings and Observations.  This report is a useful resource for firms to leverage to improve their compliance and risk management programs.  One of the findings in the report pertains to failure to effectively monitor for and react to regulatory changes.  Firms are required to review regulatory changes against their supervisory systems, including their written supervisory procedures and training programs.  FINRA found that some firms did not adequately respond to recent regulatory changes such as FinCen’s new Customer Due Diligence (CDD) obligations and requirements around Financial Exploitation of Specified […]

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