The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a report on the use of the fine money it collected in 2025.
The authority noted that it prioritizes obtaining restitution for harmed customers from member firms and also can impose fines on firms to address wrongdoing and deter future misconduct. The use of fine monies is approved by the Board of Governors or the Finance Committee only for one of four enumerated purposes:
- capital initiatives or nonrecurring strategic expenditures that promote more effective and efficient regulatory oversight by FINRA (including leveraging technology and data in a secure manner) or that enable improved compliance by member firms;
- activities to educate investors, promote compliance by member firms through education, compliance resources or similar projects, or ensure FINRA employees are highly trained in the markets, products and businesses it regulates;
- capital initiatives required by new legal, regulatory or audit requirements; or
- replenishing reserves in years where such reserves drop below levels reasonably appropriate to preserve FINRA’s long-term ability to fund its regulatory obligations.
During 2025, FINRA said it imposed $74.2 million in fines, and the Board determined that there were $84.9 million in fines-eligible expenditures. The balance of $10.7 million was funded from FINRA’s reserves and excess operating results.
The use of last year’s fine money included investing $27.7 million in several initiatives to enhance tools and systems for FINRA’s examination, investigation, disciplinary and other regulatory operations programs.
“These initiatives better align FINRA resources with the risks and business practices of member firms; improve the efficiency and consistency of examinations and investigations; improve disciplinary actions case management; and better leverage data and analytics in these programs,” the authority stated. The areas addressed in this category were as follows:
- Examination Program Tools—FINRA invested $10.4 million to enhance the tools and systems FINRA examiners use to manage their work efficiently. FINRA is modernizing and streamlining the exam program to achieve a more consistent, risk-based approach to exams and enhance intelligence sharing.
- Investigations and Disciplinary Programs—FINRA invested $6.9 million to implement an analytics-driven and data-optimized standardized investigative workflow to improve transparency and efficiency, enhance case management, as well as improve the quality of data collected and enhance regulatory intelligence. Additionally, the spending includes costs to modernize and enhance the systems and tools supporting electronic submissions for the Office of Hearing Officers.
- Advanced Analytics Transformation and GenAI Integration—In 2025, FINRA invested $6.4 million in the continuing transformation of the advanced analytics program that supports various regulatory functions. The investment includes costs for the ongoing implementation of centralized data services and analytics platforms that serve as the foundation for numerous applications supporting FINRA’s regulatory programs, as well as costs to enhance its GenAI capabilities and integrate GenAI into regulatory and support functions
- Other Regulatory Operations Programs—FINRA invested $4 million to enhance how FINRA shares real-time regulatory intelligence, as well as establish tailored cyber risk and incident response training for member firms.
FINRA also allocated $19.3 million to promote transparency and strengthen monitoring of equity, option and fixed income market activity. This includes a comprehensive surveillance program that combines data from FINRA reporting and transparency systems and the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). FINRA conducts cross-market surveillance for all trading in U.S.-listed equities and options, and also conducts surveillance of the unlisted equity market and certain fixed income instruments that trade in the over-the-counter market to identify potential market manipulation or other misconduct.
FINRA invested $15.3 million to enhance services and systems that serve member firms and member oversight. This included modernizing the platforms firms use to comply with advertising and corporate finance reporting rules. Additionally, FINRA enhanced its fingerprinting platform driven by Federal Bureau of Investigation requirements, enhanced the Dispute Resolution Services portal to support mobile devices and function automation, and implemented changes to allow service providers to file submissions on behalf of firms to FINRA’s regulatory systems.
FINRA also spent $9 million to fund various tools and resources to support member firm compliance, $8.8 million on regulatory-focused training for FINRA staff, and.$4.8 million in investor education research and programs.
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