McGuireWoods partner Emily Gordy was quoted in a Jan. 10, 2020, FundFire article on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s examination priorities for 2020. FINRA issues the Priorities Letter to provide financial firms with important information on key regulatory issues. This guidance assists firms in their own reviews of their regulatory compliance, risk and supervisory programs. Among others, the key focus areas highlighted by FINRA included cash management and bank sweep programs, best execution, and cybersecurity.
According to the article, in the first part of the year, FINRA will check in with firms to see if they’re prepared to implement the new Regulation Best Interest rules before the June 30 compliance date. Among other priorities, FINRA also will assess the technology governance programs used at financial firms “due to the proliferation of technology used for trading, operations, back-office and compliance programs.”
“If you don’t have protocols in place, all aspects of decision-making around bringing on new technology or changing a firm’s current technology run the risk of having gaps” in regulatory compliance, Gordy told FundFire, a Financial Times subsidiary.
Gordy also was quoted in a Jan. 9, 2020, Investment News article on the same topic.