FINRA Rules Quick Reference
FINRA's rulebook runs to hundreds of individual rules, and this guide is the first in a ten-part quick reference series covering all of them, one rule at a time. This piece covers the first 39, spanning FINRA's Membership Application and Registration Rules (the 1000 series) and the opening half of the Duties and Conflicts rules (the 2000 series) — the foundational layer every broker-dealer and registered representative operates under before anything else in the rulebook applies.
The First 39 Rules Every FINRA-Regulated Professional Should Know
Building the knowledge to actually work with this rulebook starts with FRC's SIE Exam Preparation course, which covers the foundational regulatory material every entry-level candidate is tested on. The Series 7 Exam Preparation course builds on that foundation with the deeper conduct and registration knowledge a fully licensed registered representative needs.
FINRA Rule 1010
Rule 1010 sets out the electronic filing requirements for the uniform registration forms — Form U4, Form U5, and related documents — that every broker-dealer and associated person must submit through FINRA's centralized systems. It is the procedural starting point for the entire Membership Application and Registration section that follows it.
FINRA Rule 1011
Rule 1011 defines the terms used throughout FINRA's membership application rules, including what counts as a "material change in business operations," a "restructuring," and who qualifies as a "controlling person." These definitions determine exactly when a firm must file a new membership application rather than simply notify FINRA of a change.
FINRA Rule 1012
Rule 1012 lays out the general provisions governing FINRA's membership application process, including how firms submit applications and how FINRA's Department reviews them. It functions as the procedural backbone connecting the definitions in Rule 1011 to the substantive application requirements that follow.
FINRA Rule 1013
Rule 1013 governs the New Member Application and Interview process, requiring a prospective firm to submit a detailed application and, in most cases, attend an interview with FINRA staff before being approved for membership. This is the actual entry point through which a new broker-dealer becomes a FINRA member firm.
FINRA Rule 1014
Rule 1014 sets out how FINRA's Department of Member Regulation decides a new member application, including the specific standards it must apply and the findings it must make before granting or denying membership. A firm that disagrees with the Department's decision can escalate it under the review rules that follow.
FINRA Rule 1015
Rule 1015 gives an applicant firm the right to have an adverse Department decision reviewed by FINRA's National Adjudicatory Council, a further internal layer of appeal built into the membership process. It ensures a firm denied membership at the first level has a genuine opportunity to be heard again.
FINRA Rule 1016
Rule 1016 allows FINRA's own Board of Governors to call a membership decision up for discretionary review, even after the National Adjudicatory Council has already ruled on it. This gives FINRA's most senior governing body a final check on significant or precedent-setting membership decisions.
FINRA Rule 1017
Rule 1017 requires an existing member firm to file a new application whenever it undergoes a material change in ownership, control, or business operations, rather than simply continuing under its original membership approval. This closes the gap that would otherwise let a firm evade the New Member Application process purely by restructuring after approval.
FINRA Rule 1019
Rule 1019 gives a firm or individual aggrieved by FINRA's final action on a membership application the right to apply directly to the SEC for review. It is the formal bridge between FINRA's own internal appeal process and federal securities regulation.
FINRA Rule 1020
Rule 1020 sits within FINRA's membership application framework, addressing procedural aspects of how the application and review process interacts with related FINRA rules. It works alongside Rules 1013 through 1019 rather than standing as an independent substantive requirement.
FINRA Rule 1021
Rule 1021 sets out specific obligations for foreign members — firms that do not maintain a US office responsible for preparing and maintaining the financial and other reports FINRA and the SEC require. It ensures a firm operating without a domestic office still meets the same core reporting obligations as any other member.
FINRA Rule 1113
Rule 1113 sits within FINRA's membership and registration framework, addressing a specific procedural aspect of the application and registration process alongside the surrounding 1100-series rules. It is a narrower, more technical provision than the core membership rules covered above.
FINRA Rule 1122
Rule 1122 prohibits a member firm or associated person from filing incomplete or misleading information with FINRA in connection with membership or registration. It is the rule that gives FINRA's entire application process real teeth, since even technically accurate but misleading disclosures can trigger a violation.
FINRA Rule 1210-03
This interpretive material supplements Rule 1210's core registration requirements, providing additional guidance on how specific aspects of the registration framework apply in practice. It is read alongside Rule 1210 itself rather than as a freestanding requirement.
FINRA Rule 1210
Rule 1210 is the core registration requirement: every person engaged in a member firm's securities business must register with FINRA in the appropriate capacity, whether as a representative or a principal, before conducting that business. It is the rule that makes registration itself, not just membership, a mandatory precondition to working in the industry.
FINRA Rule 1220
Rule 1220 defines the specific registration categories a person can hold, separating principal-level registrations such as General Securities Principal from representative-level registrations such as General Securities Representative. Which category applies determines which qualification exam a candidate must pass and what activities they are permitted to perform.
FINRA Rule 1230
Rule 1230 identifies which associated persons are exempt from FINRA's registration requirements, typically because their functions do not involve securities business directly, such as certain clerical or administrative roles. It draws the line between roles that genuinely require licensing and those that do not.
FINRA Rule 1240
Rule 1240 sets out FINRA's continuing education requirements, splitting them into the Regulatory Element, completed on a set schedule tied to registration anniversaries, and the Firm Element, an ongoing training program each firm must run for its own registered staff. It ensures registration is not a one-time exam but an ongoing obligation to stay current.
FINRA Rule 2010
Rule 2010 requires every member firm to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade in conducting its business. It is one of the broadest and most frequently cited rules in the entire FINRA rulebook, often invoked alongside a more specific rule violation to capture conduct that falls short of professional standards generally.
FINRA Rule 2020
Rule 2020 prohibits a member firm or associated person from using any manipulative, deceptive, or other fraudulent device or contrivance in connection with the purchase or sale of a security. It mirrors the anti-fraud language of the federal securities laws directly into FINRA's own enforceable rulebook.
FINRA Rule 2030
Rule 2030, FINRA's pay-to-play rule, restricts a firm from engaging in distribution and solicitation activities with government entities for a set period after the firm or certain of its associated persons make political contributions to officials who could influence the award of government investment business. It is designed to keep campaign contributions from improperly influencing the selection of investment advisers to public pension funds and similar entities.
FINRA Rule 2040
Rule 2040 restricts payments a member firm can make to unregistered persons or entities in connection with the solicitation or referral of securities business. It prevents firms from routing compensation to individuals who have not gone through FINRA's own registration and qualification process.
FINRA Rule 2060
Rule 2060 restricts a member firm or associated person from using information obtained while acting in a fiduciary capacity, such as executing a transaction for an estate or trust, to solicit transactions unrelated to that fiduciary role without proper authorization. It exists to prevent a position of trust from being converted into a sales opportunity.
FINRA Rule 2070
Rule 2070 restricts transactions involving FINRA's own employees, addressing the conflict of interest that would otherwise arise if FINRA staff could freely trade through the same member firms FINRA regulates. It keeps FINRA's own workforce at arm's length from the firms it oversees.
FINRA Rules 2080 and 2081
Rule 2080 sets out the standard a member firm or associated person must meet to obtain an order expunging customer dispute information from FINRA's Central Registration Depository, generally requiring a court or arbitration finding that the claim was factually impossible, clearly erroneous, or that the registered person was not involved. Rule 2081 separately prohibits conditioning a settlement on the customer's agreement not to oppose that expungement request.
FINRA Rule 2090
Rule 2090, the Know Your Customer rule, requires a member firm to use reasonable diligence to know the essential facts about every customer and every person authorized to act on that customer's behalf. It is the foundational customer-information rule that suitability determinations under Rule 2111 are built on top of.
FINRA Rule 2100
Rule 2100 is the section heading for Transactions With Customers, the group of rules covering recommendations, suitability, commissions, and pricing that follows it. It carries no substantive requirement of its own beyond organizing the rules underneath it.
FINRA Rule 2110
Rule 2110 addresses recommendations to customers generally, sitting immediately above Rule 2111's detailed suitability framework within the Transactions With Customers section. It establishes recommendations as their own regulated category of conduct before the specific suitability tests are applied.
FINRA Rule 2111
Rule 2111, FINRA's suitability rule, requires a firm or associated person to have a reasonable basis to believe a recommended transaction or investment strategy is suitable for the customer, based on that customer's investment profile. It splits into three components a firm must satisfy: reasonable-basis suitability, customer-specific suitability, and quantitative suitability for excessive trading.
FINRA Rule 2114
Rule 2114 sets suitability-related requirements specific to recommendations involving OTC equity securities, a category that includes many thinly traded and higher-risk stocks not listed on a major exchange. It layers additional scrutiny onto the general suitability framework where the underlying security itself carries elevated risk.
FINRA Rule 2120
Rule 2120 addresses commissions, markups, and other charges a firm assesses on customer transactions, requiring that they be fair and reasonable in light of all relevant circumstances. It is the umbrella provision that the more specific pricing rules following it build on.
FINRA Rule 2121
Rule 2121 requires that prices and commissions charged to customers be fair, taking into account factors including the type of security, its availability, the price paid by the firm, and the amount of money involved in the transaction. It is one of FINRA's most frequently applied pricing standards in markup and markdown enforcement cases.
FINRA Rule 2122
Rule 2122 requires that any charge for services a firm performs for a customer, such as collecting monies, transferring securities, or appraising securities, be reasonable and not unfairly discriminatory. It extends the fair-pricing principle beyond commissions into ancillary account services.
FINRA Rule 2124
Rule 2124 governs net transactions with customers, where a firm buys from or sells to a customer as principal at a net price rather than charging a separate, disclosed commission. It sets disclosure and consent requirements specific to this pricing structure, since the firm's compensation is otherwise built invisibly into the price itself.
FINRA Rule 2130
Rule 2130 requires a firm to obtain specific financial and other information from a customer, and to have that information approved by a designated principal, before approving an account for day trading. It exists specifically to address the elevated risk profile of frequent, leveraged intraday trading.
FINRA Rule 2140
Rule 2140 prohibits a firm from interfering with a customer's request to transfer their account to another firm as a means of retaliating against a departing registered representative in an employment dispute. It protects the customer's right to choose their own broker independent of disputes between the firm and its employees.
FINRA Rule 2150
Rule 2150 prohibits the improper use of a customer's securities or funds and bars a firm or associated person from guaranteeing a customer against loss or sharing in the profits or losses of a customer's account, except under narrow, specifically permitted circumstances. It closes off some of the most direct forms of misappropriation and improper account arrangements.
FINRA Rule 2165
Rule 2165 permits, and in some circumstances requires, a firm to place a temporary hold on a disbursement of funds or securities when it reasonably believes financial exploitation of a specified adult, generally a senior citizen or a vulnerable adult, may be occurring. It gives firms a legal safe harbor to intervene protectively without immediately executing a suspicious request.
FINRA Rule 2210
Rule 2210 governs communications with the public, sorting every communication into retail communications, correspondence, and institutional communications, each carrying different principal-approval and content standards. Retail communications must be fair and balanced, cannot omit material facts, and in certain categories must be filed with FINRA's Advertising Regulation Department before or shortly after first use.
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