April 22, 2020

By Electronic Mail to [email protected]

Jennifer Piorko Mitchell
Office of the Corporate Secretary
FINRA
1735 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006-1506

Re: FINRA Regulatory Notice 20-05: SIFMA Comments on Proposal to Implement the Recommendations of the CE Council Regarding Enhancements to the Continuing Education Program for Securities Industry Professionals

Dear Ms. Mitchell:

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)1 appreciates the opportunity to comment on FINRA Regulatory Notice 20-05 (RN 20-05),2 discussing recommendations of the Securities Industry/Regulatory Council on Continuing Education (CE Council)3 to enhance the program for continuing education requirements for securities industry professionals (CE Program). Overall, SIFMA strongly supports FINRA’s proposal to implement the CE Council’s recommendations and suggests various minor adjustments as discussed below.

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

SIFMA supports the efforts of the CE Council to enhance the CE Program and is submitting this comment letter to inform the CE Council’s ongoing work. As set forth below, SIFMA believes that the CE Council can best further its efforts with respect to enhancing the CE Program by:

• SIFMA fully supports the proposal to create tailored content for each registration category.
• SIFMA supports the idea of publishing Regulatory Element topics in the prior year. However, FINRA should consider providing more advanced notice and specifying which topics are important each year so that members could prioritize the learning topics.
• SIFMA supports the proposed crediting of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Annual Compliance Meeting (ACM) Training towards satisfying an individual’s annual Firm Element requirement, but firms should be provided the flexibility to go beyond just AML and ACM Training and be permitted to align their training to their specific needs.
• The proposal to extend Firm Element training to persons with Permissive Registration may be overly burdensome.
• While SIFMA fully supports the proposed improvements to guidance and resources, SIFMA requests clarity on whether the resources would conform to a broker’s specific product line.
• Any catalog of continuing education content should not be a one-size fits all but should enable firms to customize the modules for different registration types and the nature of their securities business.
• SIFMA supports the proposed amendment to Rule 1240 that would allow individuals who were previously registered in a representative or principal registration category for at least one year to maintain their qualification for a terminated registration category through CE training.
• The proposal does not address the ability to maintain state registrations, which often are required with FINRA registrations to perform registered activity in the industry.
• The proposal is unclear regarding what information will be available to a hiring firm regarding CE completion and outstanding CE requirements.