FINRA Rule 9265

The Mandatory Hearing Recording Requirement

FINRA Rule 9265's first provision — a hearing shall be recorded by a court reporter and a transcript shall be prepared — is absolute and non-discretionary. Every FINRA disciplinary hearing, without exception, must be recorded by a court reporter and transcribed. There is no waiver provision, no party consent mechanism to proceed unrecorded, and no Hearing Officer discretion to dispense with the recording requirement. The mandatory shall contrasts sharply with the default-with-exception approach to pre-hearing conference recording that the rule's second provision establishes.

The court reporter requirement — specifying court reporters rather than audio recording equipment — reflects the high reliability and legal status of court reporter transcripts as official records. Court reporters are trained professionals who produce verbatim transcripts of judicial and administrative proceedings, certifying their accuracy as a matter of professional and legal responsibility. Court reporter transcripts are accepted as authoritative records in appellate proceedings before the NAC, the SEC, and federal courts of appeals — a status that audio recordings or other mechanical recordings would not achieve without additional certification and authentication requirements.

The shall be prepared requirement for the written transcript completes the recording obligation — recording without transcription would leave the record in an audio format that is difficult for appellate review, citation in briefs, and reference by parties and Adjudicators. The written transcript is the working document of the appellate process: briefs before the NAC and the SEC cite specific transcript pages, Adjudicators review testimony by reading transcript pages, and the transcript is the primary tool for identifying inconsistencies between hearing testimony and prior statements under FINRA Rule 9253's witness statement framework.

Pre-Hearing Conference Recording: The Default and Exception

FINRA Rule 9265's second provision applies the same recording and transcription framework to pre-hearing conferences, but with a significant qualification: unless otherwise ordered by a Hearing Officer, a pre-hearing conference shall be recorded by a court reporter and a transcript shall be prepared. The default is recording — consistent with the mandatory hearing recording standard — but the Hearing Officer retains discretion to order that a specific pre-hearing conference not be recorded.

This default-with-exception structure reflects the different character of pre-hearing conferences compared to evidentiary hearings. A pre-hearing conference may range from a brief administrative scheduling call to a substantive session at which the Hearing Officer addresses contested discovery disputes, rules on motions, and establishes the procedural framework for the hearing. The substantive content of many pre-hearing conferences — agreements between the parties, Hearing Officer orders, rulings on contested motions — is important enough to warrant a verbatim record. But a brief administrative call to confirm a hearing date, discuss scheduling logistics, or address a minor procedural matter may not require the expense and formality of court reporter transcription.

The Hearing Officer's discretion to excuse recording for specific pre-hearing conferences serves this administrative efficiency purpose. FINRA's Guide to the Disciplinary Hearing Process confirms the default recording standard directly: all hearings will be recorded and transcribed by a court reporter; unless otherwise ordered by the Hearing Officer, pre-hearing conferences will also be recorded and transcribed.

Transcript Purchase Rights

FINRA Rule 9265's third provision establishes transcript purchase rights for parties and witnesses. A transcript of a pre-hearing conference and a transcript of a hearing shall be available to a party for purchase from the court reporter at prescribed rates. A witness may purchase from the court reporter a transcript of their own testimony.

The party purchase right at prescribed rates ensures that parties who wish to work from the official transcript — in preparing post-hearing briefs, in reviewing testimony for appellate purposes, or simply in managing the factual record of a complex multi-day hearing — can obtain that record without negotiating individually with the court reporter. The prescribed rates standard provides cost transparency and uniformity — FINRA Rule 9251(e)'s staff-set rate mechanism for document copying has its parallel here in the prescribed rates for transcript purchase.

The witness purchase right is carefully limited to that witness's own testimony. A witness who testified at a FINRA disciplinary hearing is not entitled to purchase transcripts of other witnesses' testimony or the hearing as a whole — the broader record is available to the parties, but individual witnesses' access is appropriately limited to their own contributions to the record. A customer who testified voluntarily at a hearing and wishes a record of what they said may purchase their own testimony transcript from the court reporter, enabling them to verify the accuracy of their testimony's transcription and potentially to participate in the correction process established by the rule's fourth provision.

The Transcript Correction Process

FINRA Rule 9265's fourth provision — the transcript correction mechanism — provides an affidavit-based process for correcting transcription errors before the record is finalized for post-hearing briefing and proposed findings. Prior to the filing of post-hearing briefs or proposed findings and conclusions, or within such earlier time as ordered by the Hearing Officer, a party or witness may seek to correct their transcript. A proposed correction shall be submitted to the Hearing Officer by affidavit. Upon notice to all parties, the Hearing Officer may order the correction as requested or sua sponte.

The affidavit requirement for proposed corrections ensures that transcript correction requests are sworn statements — the party or witness attesting to what was actually said rather than what the transcript reflects — rather than informal requests. This sworn-statement requirement distinguishes genuine transcription errors from strategic attempts to revise testimony after hearing, creating accountability for correction requests that helps Hearing Officers distinguish between legitimate technical corrections and substantive attempts to change the record.

The timing limit — before post-hearing briefs or proposed findings are filed, or within any earlier time the Hearing Officer specifies — establishes the window within which transcript correction must occur. Once post-hearing briefing has begun, the parties have already organized their legal arguments around the transcript as it exists, and allowing substantive changes to the transcript at that point would require revision of briefs already filed and potentially prejudice parties who have relied on the existing transcript in their arguments. The pre-briefing correction window provides adequate opportunity to correct genuine errors while preventing post-briefing revision that could disrupt the record.

The sua sponte correction authority — the Hearing Officer may correct the transcript on their own initiative as well as in response to party requests — enables the Hearing Officer to address obvious transcription errors that the parties may have overlooked, ensuring the accuracy of the official record regardless of whether any party has formally sought correction.

The parallel with SEC administrative proceedings is direct — 17 CFR Section 201.302(c) provides the same pre-post-hearing-brief window for transcript corrections in SEC administrative proceedings, with the same affidavit or motion mechanism and the same Hearing Officer authority to order corrections.

The Transcript as the Foundation of Appellate Review

FINRA Rule 9265's transcript requirement is not merely an administrative formality — it is the structural prerequisite for FINRA's entire appellate review system. FINRA Rule 9311's appeal right to the NAC, FINRA Rule 9370's application for SEC review, and any further appellate proceedings before federal courts of appeals all depend on the existence of a verbatim transcript of the hearing that the appellate bodies can review. Without FINRA Rule 9265's mandatory recording and transcription requirement, FINRA's disciplinary proceedings would lack the appellate infrastructure that due process and Exchange Act Section 15A require.

FINRA Rule 9267 — Record; Supplemental Documents Attached to Record; Retention — cross-references FINRA Rule 9265 directly, including transcripts of pre-hearing conferences and hearings among the required contents of the official record. The court reporter transcript, created pursuant to FINRA Rule 9265, is the central document in the FINRA Rule 9267 official record — the artifact around which all other record components are organized and through which the complete narrative of the proceedings is preserved.

Connection to FINRA Rules 9241, 9262, 9267, and 9311

FINRA Rule 9265 connects to FINRA Rule 9241's pre-hearing conference recording cross-reference — the Guide to the Disciplinary Hearing Process cites FINRA Rules 9241 and 9265 together for the default recording standard. FINRA Rule 9262's oath requirement — administered by the court reporter at the hearing — is documented in the transcript created pursuant to FINRA Rule 9265, linking the sworn testimony commitment to the verbatim record of the testimony given. FINRA Rule 9267's official record contents include FINRA Rule 9265 transcripts as core components. FINRA Rule 9311's appellate process depends entirely on the FINRA Rule 9265 transcript as the factual record that the NAC reviews.

Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways

FINRA Rule 9265 is tested on the Series 24 General Securities Principal examination as the record of hearing rule — the rule establishing mandatory transcript creation for disciplinary hearings and the default transcript requirement for pre-hearing conferences.

The key points to retain are these: FINRA Rule 9265 mandates that every disciplinary hearing shall be recorded by a court reporter and a written transcript shall be prepared — the obligation is absolute with no exception or waiver; pre-hearing conferences shall also be recorded by court reporter and transcribed unless the Hearing Officer orders otherwise — the default is recording with Hearing Officer discretion to dispense with recording for specific conferences; transcripts of both hearings and pre-hearing conferences are available for purchase by parties at prescribed rates from the court reporter; witnesses may purchase transcripts of their own testimony only — not the broader hearing record; a party or witness may seek transcript corrections by submitting a proposed correction by affidavit to the Hearing Officer prior to the filing of post-hearing briefs or proposed findings and conclusions or within any earlier deadline the Hearing Officer specifies; the Hearing Officer may order corrections as requested or sua sponte upon notice to all parties; the mandatory transcript requirement is the structural prerequisite for FINRA's entire appellate review system under FINRA Rule 9311 and beyond — appellate review of disciplinary decisions depends entirely on the verbatim record created pursuant to FINRA Rule 9265; and the rule was adopted in 1997 and last amended December 15, 2008 through SR-FINRA-2008-021 with no substantive amendments since original adoption.