The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is about to unveil new plans to ramp up oversight of stockbrokers’ records following an investigation by the Wall Street Journal that revealed failings with the information available to investors.
A person familiar with FINRA’s proposal told the Wall Street Journal that the changes would require brokerage firms to carry out formal background checks on new employees, including brokers hired directly from other firms. FINRA is also planning to cross-check publicly reported information for each of the 630,000 stockbrokers it currently oversees against public court records.
