About FINRA
Suppose your enterprise is located in the United States. In that case, you are covered by the Financial-Industry-Regulatory-Authority (FINRA), an independent regulator securities firm regulating the securities industry, which used to be called the National-Association-of-Securities-Dealers (NASD). A consolidated FINRA rulebook containing the rules and regulations is framed by FINRA Compliance in collaboration with the Securities-Exchange-Commission (SEC) and other regulators and investors. This non-governmental, non-profit agency aims to protect investors by ensuring fair and honest dealing between the brokers and the finance industry.
Need for FINRA Compliance
So, we come to the big question: What is the need for FINRA Compliance by the financial institutions? And here is the answer in the below-mentioned pointers:
- To educate investors
- To ensure fair play and transparency in the market dealings
- Govern the activities of the broker-dealers with brokers by enforcing rules
- Examine the financial institutions for FINRA compliance
Importance of FINRA Compliance
It is vital in the US financial system that market integrity is maintained, and the investor safeguards are enhanced. It has to be ensured at no cost to the taxpayers, and this fair financial market can be achieved by enforcing the FINRA regulation.
- FINRA gets the necessary protection which the investors deserve
- Only qualified, tested, and licensed persons can sell a security product
- Advertisements security of sale products have to be truthful and not mislead the investors
- The security products that are sold must address the needs of the investors
- There should be investment product disclosure before investors purchase the product
The rules and regulations of FINRA are so designed to keep the investors in mind, and it has the ability for the following:
- Inspect the US equity markets accurately
- Inform the investors through various useful tools
- Monitor the brokerage firms successfully
- Swiftly identify the frauds that may take place.
How Does FINRA Non-Compliance Cost A Company?
First of all, with many multiple challenges of FINRA compliance, it might not be easy for enterprises to change their work cultures immediately. It promotes a greater level of transparency in social media, and its impact on financial institutions is felt. Then there are the risks of sensitive information leaked through social media practices during transactions. People often share and post crucial data that may be intentional or unintentional but not desired. When this happens, it affects the institutions’ intellectual property, and the customer data gets leaked, resulting in non-compliance with FINRA. Social media has the potential of disrupting the compliance measures that have to be followed, and this is a cause for great concern and has to be acted upon.
How CloudCodes Helps Firms in Becoming FINRA Compliant?
All industries, be it the financial or educational institutions or even the health institutions, have to follow some security concerns. FINRA/SEC is indeed for the investors’ security, and FINRA compliance is a must for financial firms. When the enterprises migrate their data to the cloud, their lack of oversight or planning leads to data targeted by way of unwanted leaks and shares, which is harmful. It can result in compliance violations, and cloud services, unfortunately, become the vectors.
Data saved in the cloud storage makes up for the maximum of such Data Loss Prevention (DLP) violations, which is the direct result of unplanned security concerns. Hence, institutions need ways to comply with regulations and prevent sensitive data from getting leaked. CloudCodes CASB solution comes to the rescue here by enhancing the cloud security protocols of these financial institutions. CloudCodes helps enterprises achieve FINRA compliance much more comfortably, and in the process, these solutions make their critical data safe and secure in the cloud.
Conclusion
Every enterprise that uses cloud computing and storage services has to follow some of the other compliance concerns. FINRA is what has to be adhered to by the financial institutions. FINRA compliance can be best achieved through Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) solutions, which also help safeguard and secure these enterprises’ crucial data.