Whistleblower Says FINRA, States Allowed Sensitive Data to Remain Accessible

Bloomberg is reporting that a whistleblower has accused market regulators and FINRA of allowing sensitive broker and adviser information, including account numbers, to be exposed. The regulators and FINRA attributed the problem to firms and brokers that submitted more information on registration forms than was necessary, according to the report. The sensitive data was then not caught by filters meant to shield such data from public view. The whistleblower in a complaint to the SEC also alleged that state regulators allowed Social Security numbers and other sensitive information to remain publicly accessible for years up until 2015. FINRA and the North American Securities Administrators Association acknowledged the past problems but dispute that they were negligent in cleaning up the disclosures, according to the report. Bloomberg reports that the majority of the data exposure problems have been corrected, and FINRA said that there was no hack or unauthorized access to its BrokerCheck system.