FINRA Releases Exam Priorities Letter for 2017

FINRA recently released its annual letter highlighting the issues and concerns it will focus on through its regulatory programs in 2017.  FINRA also announced plans to initiate electronic, off-site reviews to supplement its traditional on-site examinations. FINRA’s exam priorities for 2017 include: cybersecurity; anti-money laundering programs; hiring and monitoring of high-risk and recidivist brokers; sales practices, including firms’ controls to protect senior investors from fraud, abuse and improper advice. FINRA also plans to focus on firms’ management of financial risks and to review firms’ funding and liquidity plans, and to assess whether firms adequately evaluate their liquidity needs related to market-wide stresses.