With only 4% of customer complaints being expunged, FINRA is bowing to pressure, presumably from the customer attorneys’ bar, to again make it more difficult to remove false claims from a broker’s public record.
FINRA’s recent proposed amendment seeks to make expungement an even more extraordinary remedy by preventing anyone found liable in a customer complaint case from even seeking it. The proposal would also require that customers who have submitted complaints or other professionals be invited to any hearing on expungement proposals; and it would prohibit the arbitration panels charged with granting or rejecting expungement requests from giving any “evidentiary weight” to a customer’s failure to appear at a hearing.
https://www.financial-planning.com/news/brokers-comment-period-on-finra-expungement-proposal
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Looking to expunge a disclosure from BrokerCheck? Read our article Expungement of Customer Complaints
Mark Astarita is a nationally recognized securities attorney, who represents investors, financial professionals and firms in securities litigation, arbitration and regulatory matters, including SEC and FINRA investigations and enforcement proceedings.
He is a partner in the national securities law firm Sallah Astarita & Cox, LLC, and the founder of The Securities Law Home Page - SECLaw.com, which was one of the first legal topic sites on the Internet. It went online in 1995 and is updated daily with news, commentary and securities law related links.
