The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has released its annual overview of the securities industry, InvestmentNews reports.
FINRA published the 2023 Industry Snapshot providing a statistical report on registered representatives, brokerage firms, and market activity that FINRA oversees. The authority said this year’s edition adds new data about options trading activity, and certain demographic changes of FINRA-registered representatives.
“The 2023 Snapshot maintains FINRA’s commitment to providing a data-driven view into the securities industry and its activities through the lens of regulatory reporting,” said FINRA Chief Economist and Executive Vice President Jonathan Sokobin. “We continue to add new data categories to the Industry Snapshot, increasing the transparency of and visibility into an evolving securities industry.”
Among the findings in this year’s report was that the number of brokerage firms overseen by FINRA dropped to 3,378 in 2022, falling for the fourth consecutive year. But the number of registered representatives increased last year to 620,882, a rise of over 8,400 from 2021.
The snapshot also showed that the brokerage industry’s net income continued to decline, falling from $91.6 billion in pretax net income in 2021 to $42.3 billion in 2022. Total revenues dropped from $398.5 billion in 2021 to $350.5 billion in 2022.
New topics incorporated into the 2023 snapshot included options trading activity by account owner type; demographic changes in FINRA-registered representatives by year and firm size, supplementary liquidity schedule providers by type and size, and sources of liquidity, and taxable investment account ownership data from the FINRA Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study.
FINRA provided a link to the industry snapshot on its data page.
Under FINRA Rule 8210, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has the authority to “inspect and copy the books, records and accounts” of a FINRA member as it relates to any matter concerning an investigation, complaint, examination or proceeding. Lewitas Hyman has decades of experience advising clients on complex and serious FINRA investigations. If you received an 8210 letter from FINRA, we invite you to contact us today by calling (888) 655-6002or filling out our online contact form to schedule your free consultation.
