FINRA To Roll Out New Rules Soon

FINRA announced this week that it will soon start the process of announcing effective dates for the new FINRA rules as it seeks to consolidate the rulebooks from NASD and NYSE.  As specified in an Information Notice issued October 6, 2008, FINRA will issue a Regulatory Notice later this month announcing the effective dates of the rules approved by the SEC in the past two months.  Then, in December, it will do the same, and the process will continue with Notices every two months or so until complete.  The Notices will also contain links to online rule conversion charts, helping firms see how the new rules relate to the older NASD or NYSE rules that will be replaced.

As the new rules roll out, compliance folks will need to ensure that they are keeping abreast of the effective dates, as well as of any changes in the rules.  Among other things, written supervisory procedures and compliance manuals, and other documents that reference the old rules will need to be updated.  And, based on any changes in the rules, certain processes might need to be changed as well.