On April 25, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a report relating to its use of fine monies collected in 2018. FINRA issued $61.0 million in fines, and incurred $81.1 million in fine-eligible expenditures (i.e., capital initiatives, strategic expenditures and other activities eligible to be funded by fine monies based on FINRA’s Financial Guiding Principles) in 2018. Since the total of fine-eligible expenditures exceeded the amount of fines issued in 2018, the balance of $20.1 million was funded from FINRA’s reserves.

The fine-eligible expenditures furthered FINRA’s goals to implement efficient oversight programs that protect investors and the markets, modernize critical securities industry infrastructure, strengthen FINRA’s ability to track trading across markets, enhance FINRA’s risk-based analytics, enhance the efficiency of FINRA systems, facilitate compliance by member firms and equip investors with knowledge and resources to help them navigate ever-evolving markets, products and services.

The report is available here.