The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is mulling an update to its rules around complex products, according to Robert Cook, FINRA's president and CEO.
The broker-dealer self-regulator is "looking closely at the offering of complex products by our member firms," Cook said during a recent event held by the New York Law School.
"We're close to issuing a Regulatory Notice to solicit views about whether these rules need to be updated."
Complex products include junk bonds, structured notes and leveraged and inverse ETFs, according to FINRA. Complex products may use futures and options or other potentially complicated trading strategies.
FINRA wants to assess whether the rules it has in place "provide the appropriate safeguards for investors."
For instance, FINRA has "longstanding rules on how do you qualify someone to trade options. Those rules were written long before a normal retail investor could trade an option without going through a professional," Cook said. "But today, of course, you can go online, pick up your phone, or trade on a self-directed basis."
The Securities and Exchange Commission, Cook continued, recently launched an initiative in the complex products space, so FINRA will have to ensure any changes it makes to its rule set "syncs" with what the SEC is doing.
