The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Financial Industry Regulatory Authority amendments to its BrokerCheck system to expand the information released through BrokerCheck and establish a formal process to dispute the accuracy of or update information disclosed through BrokerCheck. A significant change is that FINRA has expanded the disclosure period for a FINRA member’s formerly associated persons from two years to ten years. Additionally, the conditions that must be met before “Historic Complaints” are displayed in BrokerCheck will be eliminated, and consequently, all Historic Complaints that were archived after the implementation of the Central Registration Depository on August 16, 1999, will become publicly available through BrokerCheck.

FINRA also will make publicly available on a permanent basis information regarding formerly associated persons, regardless of the time elapsed since such persons were associated with a FINRA member, if, among other things, they pleaded guilty or were convicted of a crime, were the subject of an investment-related civil injunction or court finding or were named in legal proceedings that resulted in an arbitration award or civil judgment against such person. Anticipating increased demand to ensure the accuracy of information displayed through BrokerCheck, FINRA also has formalized the process for brokers to dispute the accuracy of such information and will allow brokers to submit a written dispute notice and supporting documents to FINRA using an online form.

Click here to read Securities and Exchange Commission Release No. 34-62476.