FINRA Rule 4210 – another eleventh-hour scramble

“Different product types, different regulators, same problem”: both regulators and financial services firms are guilty of leaving rule finalisation and implementation (respectively) to the last minute. Akber Datoo discusses how they could play their roles to better effect.

Akber Datoo is managing partner at D2 Legal Technology (https://d2legaltech.com), where Johan Bear and Darren Fortunato are senior consultants.

Another regulation requiring financial institutions to repaper their client documentation, another series of delays, and calls for compliance deadline postponement; once again, market confidence is undermined and, in this case, trade volumes affected. But the changes to FINRA (the United States’ Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) Rule 4210 come hard on the heels of a number of critical new regulations from MiFID II to EMIR; after nearly a decade of continuous regulatory change, why are the same problems in responding recurring?