FINRA Rule 9290

The second sentence provides that an expedited hearing schedule shall be determined at a pre-hearing conference held in accordance with FINRA Rule 9241. 

Together these two sentences create the mandatory scheduling acceleration that ensures disciplinary proceedings running concurrent with temporary cease and desist proceedings are resolved with the urgency that the cease and desist context demands — aligning the pace of the underlying disciplinary proceeding with the urgency already established by the TCDO's investor protection rationale.

FINRA Rule 9290 sits within the 9200 Disciplinary Proceedings section of the 9000 Code of Procedure series as the final rule before the 9291 Permanent Cease and Desist Orders rule — positioned at the boundary between the core disciplinary proceedings framework of the 9200 series and the 9300 appellate series. 

It was adopted as part of SR-NASD-98-80 effective June 23, 2003 — the filing that introduced FINRA's temporary cease and desist authority on a pilot basis — and last amended by SR-FINRA-2008-021 effective December 15, 2008 as part of the consolidated FINRA rulebook transition announced in Regulatory Notice 08-57. One selected notice is associated with the rule — 08-57.

The Rule's Context: Concurrent Disciplinary and TCDO Proceedings

FINRA Rule 9290 cannot be understood in isolation from the temporary cease and desist order framework of the Rule 9800 series that it responds to. A temporary cease and desist order is an extraordinary interim remedy — issued when the Department of Enforcement has made a showing of a likelihood of success on the merits of the underlying violation and that the alleged violative conduct or its continuation is likely to result in significant dissipation or conversion of assets or other significant harm to investors before completion of the underlying disciplinary proceeding. The TCDO is designed as a bridge measure — it halts the ongoing harm while the underlying disciplinary proceeding proceeds to a final determination on the merits.

When a TCDO has been issued or a TCDO proceeding has been initiated under FINRA Rule 9810, the underlying disciplinary proceeding addressing the same conduct is already known to be urgent — the Hearing Panel issuing the TCDO has already found a likelihood of success on the merits and a risk of ongoing investor harm. In this context, the normal pace of disciplinary proceedings — which can extend over many months or even years from complaint through final Hearing Panel decision — is inconsistent with the urgency that the concurrent TCDO embodies. FINRA Rule 9290 addresses this inconsistency directly by mandating that disciplinary proceedings running concurrent with TCDOs be expedited to the earliest possible time.

The Earliest Possible Time Standard

The first sentence of FINRA Rule 9290 — hearings shall be held and decisions shall be rendered at the earliest possible time — establishes a mandatory scheduling standard using the shall formulation that characterizes mandatory Code obligations. This is not a direction to give the proceeding priority consideration or to expedite it as circumstances permit — it is a mandatory direction to schedule and conduct the hearing and render the decision as quickly as the circumstances allow.

The earliest possible time standard gives the Hearing Officer significant but not unlimited discretion. Earliest possible means the fastest schedule that is consistent with the parties' ability to adequately prepare and the Code's procedural requirements — not an instant hearing that deprives the respondent of meaningful preparation time in violation of FINRA Rule 9221(d)'s twenty-eight-day notice requirement. But it does mean compressing the pre-hearing preparation timeline to the minimum that fairness permits, scheduling the hearing at the earliest available date consistent with the twenty-eight-day minimum, and issuing the decision as promptly as possible after the conclusion of post-hearing briefing.

In practice, the earliest possible time standard means that FINRA Rule 9290 proceedings proceed on significantly compressed schedules compared to ordinary disciplinary proceedings. Discovery periods, pre-hearing briefing periods, and other pre-hearing preparation deadlines are shortened to the extent consistent with FINRA Rule 9222's good cause standards and the parties' legitimate preparation needs. The Hearing Officer has authority under FINRA Rule 9222 to set timelines appropriate to the urgency of the proceeding — FINRA Rule 9290's mandatory expediting standard provides the policy rationale for compressing those timelines that FINRA Rule 9222's good cause analysis requires.

The Pre-Hearing Conference Mechanism

The second sentence of FINRA Rule 9290 — the expedited hearing schedule shall be determined at a pre-hearing conference held in accordance with FINRA Rule 9241 — establishes the procedural vehicle for implementing the mandatory expedited schedule. Rather than specifying a default expedited timeline in the rule itself, FINRA Rule 9290 delegates the specific scheduling determination to the pre-hearing conference process of FINRA Rule 9241.

This delegation is operationally sensible. The appropriate expedited schedule depends on case-specific factors that cannot be determined by a general rule — the complexity of the charges, the volume of documentary evidence, the number of witnesses, the availability of counsel and parties, and the relationship between the disciplinary proceeding and the concurrent TCDO proceeding. A pre-hearing conference at which all parties participate with settlement authority — as FINRA Rule 9235(a)(1) requires — enables the Hearing Officer to assess all these factors and establish a schedule that is genuinely the earliest possible given the specific circumstances rather than mechanically applying a default.

FINRA Rule 9241(c) specifically references FINRA Rule 9290 in its list of subjects the Hearing Officer may address at a pre-hearing conference — the scheduling of an expedited proceeding if required by FINRA Rule 9290 is listed as the first pre-hearing conference subject, confirming the central role of the pre-hearing conference in implementing the expedited schedule that FINRA Rule 9290 mandates.

The Relationship Between the TCDO and the Underlying Disciplinary Proceeding

FINRA Rule 9290's expediting mandate reflects the structural relationship between temporary cease and desist proceedings under the Rule 9800 series and the underlying disciplinary proceedings under the Rule 9200 series. When FINRA initiates a TCDO proceeding under FINRA Rule 9810, it does so in connection with an existing or concurrently filed disciplinary complaint — the TCDO addresses the same conduct charged in the disciplinary complaint and is designed as an interim remedy pending that complaint's resolution.

FINRA Rule 9840(a) — which establishes the standard for issuing a temporary cease and desist order — provides that a TCDO shall remain effective and enforceable until the issuance of a decision under FINRA Rule 9268 or FINRA Rule 9269 in the underlying disciplinary proceeding, or until a settlement offer is accepted pursuant to FINRA Rule 9270. The TCDO is therefore temporally linked to the underlying disciplinary proceeding's final outcome — the TCDO expires when that proceeding concludes with a final decision or settlement. FINRA Rule 9290's mandatory expediting of the underlying proceeding serves to limit the duration of the TCDO's regulatory burden on the respondent while maintaining its investor protection function — the faster the underlying proceeding concludes, the sooner the TCDO either becomes a permanent cease and desist order through the disciplinary decision or is dissolved by a finding of no violation.

FINRA Rule 9291: Permanent Cease and Desist Orders

FINRA Rule 9291 — the rule immediately following FINRA Rule 9290 in the Code's structure — governs the permanent cease and desist order that may be imposed as part of a Hearing Panel decision in a disciplinary proceeding. When a disciplinary proceeding governed by FINRA Rule 9290's expedited schedule concludes with a Hearing Panel decision finding violations, that decision may include a permanent cease and desist order pursuant to FINRA Rule 9291 if the Panel finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged violation has occurred and that the respondent is likely to engage in the violative conduct in the future unless permanently ordered to cease and desist. The FINRA Rule 9290 expedited proceeding timeline thus leads directly to the potential imposition of the permanent remedy under FINRA Rule 9291 — the temporary bridge becomes a permanent order when the disciplinary proceeding confirms the underlying violations.

The Cease and Desist Authority's Development

FINRA Rule 9290's role in the Code is a product of FINRA's gradual acquisition and formalization of cease and desist authority. The initial pilot program adopted through SR-NASD-98-80 effective June 23, 2003 introduced TCDO authority and the companion expediting obligation of FINRA Rule 9290 simultaneously — recognizing from the outset that temporary interim remedies are only meaningful if the underlying disciplinary proceedings they bridge are resolved expeditiously. The pilot program was extended in 2005 and 2007 and made permanent in 2009 through the adoption described in the Federal Register release of June 9, 2009 — at each stage the expediting obligation of FINRA Rule 9290 remained an integral part of the cease and desist framework.

The 2015 amendments to the Rule 9800 series through SR-FINRA-2015-019 — which lowered the evidentiary standard for TCDOs and strengthened FINRA's authority to sanction violations of cease and desist orders — reinforced the importance of the underlying disciplinary proceedings' expedited resolution. When the TCDO standard becomes easier to meet, the urgency of concluding the underlying disciplinary proceeding expeditiously becomes greater — the broader the application of TCDOs as interim remedies, the more important the FINRA Rule 9290 mandate to bring the underlying proceedings to conclusion at the earliest possible time.

Connection to FINRA Rules 9241, 9222, 9268, 9291, 9810, and 9840

FINRA Rule 9290 connects to FINRA Rule 9241's pre-hearing conference framework as the specific procedural vehicle for determining the expedited schedule. It connects to FINRA Rule 9222's extension and postponement authority as the background against which the expedited schedule operates — even in FINRA Rule 9290 proceedings, good cause extensions remain available, but the earliest possible time standard sets a more demanding baseline than ordinary disciplinary proceedings. It connects to FINRA Rule 9268's decision framework as the output of the expedited proceeding. It connects to FINRA Rule 9291's permanent cease and desist authority as the permanent remedy that may replace the TCDO. It connects to FINRA Rule 9810's TCDO initiation authority as the trigger for FINRA Rule 9290's application. And it connects to FINRA Rule 9840's TCDO durational provisions — the TCDO remains effective until the FINRA Rule 9268 or FINRA Rule 9269 decision in the underlying disciplinary proceeding.

Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways

FINRA Rule 9290 is tested on the Series 24 General Securities Principal examination in the context of the relationship between FINRA's cease and desist authority and its underlying disciplinary proceedings, and the scheduling obligations that the concurrent operation of those two frameworks creates.

The key points to retain are these: FINRA Rule 9290 applies when a disciplinary proceeding's subject matter is also subject to a temporary cease and desist proceeding initiated under FINRA Rule 9810 or a TCDO already issued under the Rule 9800 series; the mandatory obligation is that hearings shall be held and decisions shall be rendered at the earliest possible time — the shall formulation makes this a mandatory scheduling acceleration rather than a discretionary prioritization; the specific expedited schedule shall be determined at a pre-hearing conference held in accordance with FINRA Rule 9241 — the Hearing Officer assesses case-specific factors at the conference and establishes the compressed timeline appropriate to the specific proceeding; the earliest possible time standard means scheduling and conducting the hearing and rendering the decision as quickly as the circumstances allow while maintaining the procedural protections — including FINRA Rule 9221(d)'s twenty-eight-day minimum hearing notice — that fairness requires; FINRA Rule 9241(c) specifically identifies scheduling of an expedited proceeding required by FINRA Rule 9290 as the first subject the Hearing Officer may address at a pre-hearing conference; the TCDO under FINRA Rule 9840 remains effective until the underlying disciplinary proceeding concludes — making the speed of that proceeding directly relevant to the duration of the TCDO's regulatory burden on the respondent; and the rule was adopted as part of SR-NASD-98-80 effective June 23, 2003 and last amended December 15, 2008 through SR-FINRA-2008-021.