Annual Certification of Compliance and Supervisory Practices

The Self-Regulation and Supervisory Practices Committee of SIFMA provides comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a proposed Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 3130 relating to the annual certification of compliance and supervisory practices, SR-FINRA-2008-030.  Since FINRA’s proposal is an effort to consolidate similar National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), SIFMA offers its observations and recommendations concerning differences between the existing NASD and NYSE rules and interpretive guidelines relating to the annual CEO certification and designation of a Chief Compliance Officer.  In particular, SIFMA suggests that the certification date be changed to April 1 to match the NYSE rule, rather than the proposed “anniversary rule.”