FINRA, having enacted new communications rules that specifically reference electronic communications, having issued two Regulatory Notices (linked here and here) providing guidance to the securities industry on social media, and having made social media and electronic communications exam priorities in two of the last three years, is now taking the next logical step: conducting a sweep of broker-dealers to determine their compliance with the communications rules. In posting a Targeted Examination Letter—otherwise known as a sweep letter—on its website, FINRA invoked Rule 2210(c)(6), which provides for periodic spot checking by FINRA of firms’ written (including electronic) communications.
FINRA’s sweep letter seeks, among other things...
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