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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority recently updated its COVID-19 frequently asked questions guidance to address broker-dealers providing customers with fixed income markup disclosure information as well as providing payment relief for funding portals.
FINRA states that volatile market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the rate at which broker-dealers disclose fixed income markups under FINRA Rule 2232.
Rule 2232 requires firms to provide retail customers with markup disclosure (and other related disclosures) for trades in corporate and agency debt securities that firms offset on the same day with other principal trades in the same security, FINRA explains.
Disclosed markups must be calculated from a security's Prevailing Market Price (PMP), consistent with FINRA Rule 2121 and applicable FAQ guidance.
"FINRA recognizes that the volatile market conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic may make it more difficult to determine PMP according to a firm's existing procedures, the updated FAQ explains.
In particular, "where customer trades are not tied to immediately offsetting principal trades, it may be more difficult for a firm to evaluate whether its offsetting principal trades remain reasonably indicative of PMP, based on the factors identified in Rule 2121 and applicable guidance, given such volatile market conditions. Accordingly, while these current market conditions persist, FINRA understands that firms may generate a higher number of exceptions that they evaluate as part of their supervisory review process."
