Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

FINRA regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets in the United States, setting and enforcing rules that govern their conduct. It administers qualification exams for securities professionals, maintains the BrokerCheck database for public disclosure system, and operates a dispute resolution forum that handles arbitration and mediation claims between investors and firms. The organization also conducts routine examinations of member firms to assess compliance with federal securities laws and its own rules.

FINRA’s oversight extends to thousands of brokerage firms and hundreds of thousands of registered representatives across the country, giving it a broad footprint in the U.S. securities industry. In August 2020, the organization issued an alert about a typosquatted website (finnra[.]org) that mimicked its official domain and hosted a registration form likely intended to harvest information for phishing attempts, highlighting its role in communicating cybersecurity threats to members. The warning noted that the fraudulent site shared infrastructure with other suspicious domains and urged vigilance against any subsequent spear‑phishing attempts that might use data submitted through the fake page.

As a non‑governmental self‑regulatory organization, FINRA operates under the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but is not a government agency or a subsidiary of any parent company. Its distinguishing attributes include a focus on investor protection, market integrity, and the provision of educational resources that help investors understand the risks and rewards of securities trading. FINRA also develops and enforces rules tailored to the specific activities of broker‑dealers, ranging from trading practices to sales conduct and suitability obligations.