The Evolution of FINRA’s Customer Dispute Expungement Process

Over the past 20 years, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has made it increasingly more difficult for brokers to expunge customer complaints and dispute information from their public records. FINRA recently proposed new rules (FINRA Regulatory Notice 17-42) that could dramatically alter the expungement process. This article discusses the evolution of FINRA’s expungement process and explores how the proposed changes could make expungement relief more difficult for brokers to obtain in the future.