FINRA will now only have to wait only three days to publish Form U5 advisor disclosures on its BrokerCheck website.
On Monday, FINRA announced that the SEC approved its request to change its Rule 8312 to shorten the publishing window waiting period from 15 days to three, effective Dec. 12.
In the filing, FINRA wrote that the change is a more reasonable one, “because it allows investors to more quickly access disclosure information reported on Form U5 while at the same time still providing brokers the opportunity to comment on the reported disclosure event.”
Critics of the move worry that a shorter time period jeopardizes advisors’ ability to dispute what is published about them. Moreover, they worry that an advisor might not see the information contained in the filing until it is already published.
However, FINRA counters that advisors are allowed to submit requests to BrokerCheck in order to add comments. Advisors are also allowed to dispute and update certain information for accuracy.
FINRA proposed the rule change in September, citing its concerns about the 15-day waiting period, even in cases when a broker moves to a new firm and files a Form U5 to report an event that occurred at a previous employer. "In such cases, the broker may not be aware of all the facts and circumstances involving the disclosure event and may therefore provide only limited details about the event.”
FINRA added, “some brokers may attempt to intentionally reframe the circumstances surrounding the event to put it in a light that is most favorable to the broker.”
In October, the SEC approved another FINRA request that requires brokers to provide a hyperlink to its BrokerCheck information about them on their websites.
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