On August 1, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) announced a services agreement designed to streamline the annual report filing process for member firms. Effective September 1, member firms that currently file separate annual reports with SIPC and FINRA will be able to make a single filing using FINRA’s existing reporting portal. This arrangement is intended to (1) ease reporting burdens and compliance costs for member firms, and (2) reduce the number of inconsistent or incomplete annual audited financial statements and supplementary reports being filed.

The press release announcing the services agreement is available here.