FINRA shines spotlight on senior designations
FINRA surveyed retail broker-dealer firms to assess how they were supervising registered representatives' use of senior designations. Based on data from 157 firms, FINRA discovered that 68 percent of firms allow the use of senior designations. Of those, 89 percent currently have registered reps using such designations, and 11 percent have no reps using them.
What's more, of the firms that permit the use of senior designations, 68 percent require approval and verify credentials, 23 percent require approval but do not verify credentials, and 11 percent neither require approval nor verify credentials.
The survey also found that 73 percent of broker-dealer firms prohibit the use of certain designations, while 27 percent said they had no such prohibitions.
On what grounds do firms deny approval for a designation?
Typically the five reasons are:
1) Lack of a rigorous curriculum
2) Lack of emphasis on ethics
3) Lack of continuing education requirements
