Outside Business Activities

FINRA Rule 3270 requires that registered representatives and other supervised persons provide prior written notice of any outside business activity (OBA) to the member firm. Member firms are required to review the activity and determine if it is allowed or prohibited in accordance with FINRA Rule 3270. The member firm may also set certain limits and restrictions related to the activity. The review and decision process must be appropriately documented and filed.

FINRA continues to make the supervision of Outside Business Activities a top exam priority. To ensure compliance, member firms must identify technology and processes that enable the efficient management of the OBA request submission, supervisory review, approval / response, status tracking, registered representative attestation, documentation, and reporting processes.

Outside Business Activities is the top solution choice among broker-dealers across the country and another reason why RegEd is the nation’s highest volume FINRA Web EFT filer. The system facilitates the collection, analysis and reporting of critical compliance information required by FINRA. Hallmarked by robust automation, end-to-end workflow management and FINRA-filing capabilities, Outside Business Activities enables centralized, systematized management of OBA disclosures, attestations and amendments, reducing review time and facilitating communication on specific requests to speed the decision process.

The user-friendly interface guides reps through the OBA request submission process, identifying any specific documentation that must accompany the request. Requests are automatically routed to the appropriate supervisor based on the firm’s specific hierarchy and defined workflows. Full tracking capabilities enable submitted requests to be tracked and approvals, adverse responses or other communications to be logged.

Outside Business Activities provides reps with access to their current U4 record and enables online editing and the creation of new disclosure submissions. Registered persons, supervisors and other stakeholders are able to view current status of all OBA requests based on assigned permissions. And, the solution’s periodic attestation requirements and tracking ensures that all current activities are proactively managed, reducing risk exposure.

The system records the full chronology of each request, enabling compliance, supervisors and other stakeholders to readily identify when the OBA was filed and disclosed to FINRA, and initiate and monitor supervisory review activity, reducing potential FINRA exam findings resulting from late filings.

Outside Business Activities, along with the other RegEd Conflicts of Interests Solution modules, captures requests, approvals, exceptions, audit trails, and full compliance documentation. The solution’s enterprise reporting capabilities include reporting on-demand and using pre-defined formats, enabling users to readily satisfy requirements and ad-hoc requests from internal stakeholders and regulators.

By automating end-to-end OBA management, compliance monitoring and exception management, firms can have confidence they are embedding best practices in their compliance program.