May 13, 2014
I am the immediate past FINRA Director of Arbitration, having retired in 2013. I submit this comment with respect to SR-FINRA-2014-20 (Proposed Rule Change to Adopt FINRA Rule 2081-Prohibited Conditions Relating to Expungement of Customer Dispute Information). For the reasons articulated below I believe the proposed rule should be approved.
Expungement is indeed a complex and challenging issue. On the one hand is the obvious need to protect and inform investors. On the other is the need to have some means for a broker wrongly accused of wrongdoing to clear his or her name. FINRA over the years made strenuous efforts to craft a process that addresses both objectives. The proposed rule goes a step further by ensuring that a clean record has not been bought via settlement.
I urge the Commission to approve the proposed new rule.