During the annual Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) conference, CEO Robert Cook announced a three-part initiative that aims to improve and clarify the regulatory body’s efforts to protect investors and safeguard financial markets. As of April 2025, the “FINRA Forward” initiative has been unfolding in order to “build a culture of continuous improvement across FINRA.” This newly launched program contains three initiatives, all of which strive to support FINRA’s efforts to keep up with the rapidly changing technological landscape while protecting investors and financial markets. As an individual financial advisor or member firm, it’s challenging to keep up with the dizzying pace of regulatory changes, amended rules, and compliance requirements. That’s why partnering with a highly qualified and trusted securities law attorney is recommended, especially when you find yourself facing enforcement actions or other concerning issues that could jeopardize your professional reputation and future career in this industry. With an experienced and knowledgeable legal advocate by your side, you can trust that your best interests will be fiercely protected at every opportunity. Let’s take a closer look at how the FINRA Forward initiative may affect professionals in the financial industry and how legal guidance for FINRA rule changes can improve your chances of enjoying a bright and secure future.
Understanding The Goal of the FINRA Forward Initiative
In the words of FINRA CEO Robert Cook, “Among other things, FINRA Forward will focus on leveraging the expertise and input of our member firms through our unique model of self-regulation; capitalizing and building on recent enhancements to our regulatory programs and technology capabilities; supporting further innovation in financial services; and ensuring our regulatory policies and activities are tailored to the opportunities and risks of the current market, business, and technology environment.” In other words, FINRA recognizes that the technological landscape is evolving rapidly and that this regulatory body has an obligation to investors to adapt its rules and policies to reflect these ever-changing capabilities and realities. Essentially, the FINRA Forward program has three primary initiatives: “Modernizing FINRA’s rules; Empowering member firm compliance; and combating cybersecurity and fraud risks.” Each of these initiatives is explored in further detail below.
Modernizing FINRA’s Rules
First, FINRA aims to create clear and revised regulatory standards that “enable member firms to operate, compete, and innovate on a fair playing field.” By launching new rule modernization initiatives, FINRA is soliciting feedback from member firms, investors, and other parties about which areas of the existing rulebook warrant re-examination or re-evaluation. According to FINRA, “This rule modernization initiative will support our mission by establishing more efficient and effective standards that reflect the contemporary market, business, and technology environment, and that create opportunities for further innovation in financial services for the benefit of markets and investors.”
Encouraging Member Firm Compliance
As a financial advisor or member firm, you are well aware of your responsibilities for complying with all rules and regulations. One initiative addressed in FINRA Forward is taking a more proactive approach to support member firm compliance to reduce the number of enforcement actions that arise later on. Interestingly, FINRA’s CEO has announced efforts to empower member firms in more significant ways: “In the spirit of continuous improvement, we agree we can do more to empower member firm compliance, particularly since recent changes to our regulatory programs may create new opportunities.” In addition to soliciting feedback about modernizing FINRA’s rules, the agency intends to provide more actional compliance resources, like conferences, events, and other tools, to member firms that help to educate and support their efforts to remain compliant. Another goal is to share common potential compliance risks or issues “with member firms [to] help them improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their compliance capabilities, understand how their compliance programs compare to other firms, and potentially avoid issues that might otherwise develop into compliance failures.” Streamlining unnecessary burdens on member firms is also a priority for FINRA, as it hopes to avoid imposing unnecessary hassles and obligations on already busy member firms however it can.
Tackling Cybersecurity and Fraud Risks
The third component of the FINRA Forward initiative concerns fraud prevention and cybersecurity. These two issues remain the most significant risks facing financial markets, investors, and member firms. To this end, FINRA has created a Financial Intelligence Fusion Center that collects, analyzes, and disseminates fraud and cybersecurity threat intelligence to member firms as they occur, using a secure portal. Additionally, FINRA intends to improve its communication and sharing capabilities among member firms to identify potential security breaches or concerns in real-time and notify all industry parties as quickly as possible.
How a Trusted Securities Law Attorney Can Help You
Remaining in compliance with FINRA and the SEC may seem simple, but minor oversights or lapses in reporting obligations can escalate into tense and costly legal battles very quickly. If you have been the target of an inaccurate, baseless, or downright false customer complaint, it’s understandable that you would want to have this information expunged from your BrokerCheck profile as quickly as possible. Making a FINRA expungement request can seem intimidating, especially if you are not familiar with the upcoming administrative proceedings. When you enlist the guidance of Colorado’s go-to securities law attorney, you can rest assured that your best interests will be prioritized and protected at every step of the expungement process. As a certified mediator and FINRA-certified arbitrator, attorney Tosh Grebenik has extensive experience successfully defending professionals in the financial and securities industries from customer complaints. Moreover, he is fully prepared to answer your questions about regulatory compliance, FINRA investigations, and any other concerns you may have about your professional future. Now’s the time to get the answers you need to move forward with confidence.
Keeping up with the latest trends, rules, and reporting requirements in the financial industry can be daunting. That’s why Judex Law, LLC, is ready to step in and answer your questions, address your concerns, and represent your best interests at every opportunity. Please call our office today at (303) 523-4022 to get started with a highly experienced and friendly securities law attorney.