The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday released new guidelines for a proposed computerized method to track balances and transactions in brokerage accounts, a step toward a system that could transform how regulators oversee the brokerage industry. Finra says the system, which it calls the Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System, or Cards, will give it the ability to follow more closely how brokers handle customer funds. Cards will give examiners the ability to spot unscrupulous behavior by brokers, such as making trades that benefit the broker rather than investors, Finra says. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

Wall Street’s self-regulator appears to have dropped plans to make brokers who change employers to tell all clients about any big-money signing bonuses they get as part of the move. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Friday it will float a new, less stringent proposal. It would oblige the firm that hires the broker to send clients a list of suggested questions they may want to ask before deciding whether to stay with that broker and move their accounts to his or her new firm. One question would be whether the broker was getting a bonus. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

In a rare decision, an Oklahoma court sided with an investor who demanded an arbitration case he won against his former brokerage be vacated because the $9,900 award was too small to cover his trading losses. Steven Admire, however, didn’t get all he wanted. The court ordered a new arbitration hearing, but Mr. Admire’s wants a trial instead to settle his dispute with Geary Securities Inc., a defunct Oklahoma broker-dealer. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]

Linda Fienberg, head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration unit, plans to leave the self-regulator at the end of November. Fienberg, president of FINRA Dispute Resolution and chief hearing officer, joined FINRA (then the National Association of Securities Dealers) in June 1996 and has responsibility for FINRA’s dispute resolution and disciplinary hearing programs. More on ThinkAdvisor [...]

In the wake of two high-profile cases in which awards were overturned because of issues with the arbitrators on those case, Wall Street’s self-regulator has put in place steps intended to better vet its more than 6,300 arbitrators. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. now routinely performs an Internet search on the background of arbitrators when they are assigned to a case. The search is intended to flag material that suggest an arbitrator may be biased or unqualified to sit on the case. If Finra finds material it deems necessary to disclose it will require the arbitrator to make that disclosure. More in Investment News [...]

WASHINGTON—The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is pressing retail brokers for details about how they route customer orders amid mounting concerns some brokers might be sending orders to venues that provide the highest payments but not the best price for investors. Finra is sending “sweep letters” to about 10 brokers this week after studying routing patterns by the firms on its Order Audit Trail System, which tracks stock-market trading action, said Tom Gira, executive vice president of Finra’s market regulation department, in an interview. Mr. Gira said Finra has notified the firms that they’ll be receiving the letter. The letter asks brokers for information about how they determine where to route orders so that the price is “as favorable as possible for its customer under prevailing market conditions,” based on a copy of the letter posted on Finra’s website. Finra is focusing on so-called nonmarketable limit orders, or orders that will only trade if a stock reaches a specific price. Retail brokers often route such orders to exchanges, giving them the opportunity to collect a rebate exchanges offer. More in the Wall Street Journal [...]