Managing FINRA Compliance In 2025
Aligning with FINRA’s Regulatory Priorities
As financial firms navigate an evolving regulatory environment, the 2025 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report offers crucial insights into FINRA’s latest regulatory findings and expectations. This annual resource underscores FINRA’s commitment to transparency, equipping member firms with valuable observations, effective practices, and updates on emerging risks.
The 2025 Report builds upon previous years’ guidance, offering expanded insights and introducing new topics relevant to evolving regulatory expectations. For firms looking to enhance their employee compliance programs, the Report covers a broad range of critical areas, from use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to guard rails associated with proper communications with the public. Here are three key areas that warrant attention—where leveraging advanced compliance technology, such as StarCompliance’s (Star) SaaS-based employee compliance suite, can help automate workflows, streamline processes, and mitigate risks. The areas of focus include:
1. Communication With The Public
Regulatory Focus:
FINRA Rule 2210 emphasizes that all public communications must be fair, balanced, and not misleading—particularly critical in the context of crypto assets and AI-generated content.
Common Pitfalls Identified by FINRA:
- Inadequate supervision of influencer content
- Misleading promotional claims
- Omission of required risk disclosures for products like options or registered index-linked annuities (RILAs)
- Exaggerated or unbalanced AI-related communications
How Star Can Help
In today’s fast-paced digital world—where regulatory scrutiny is high and messaging moves fast—Star’s AI-assisted Marketing Compliance Review solution helps firms stay compliant and confident.
- Used by marketing and compliance teams to review all materials ensuring marketing language is in line with FINRA and SEC regulations
- Automatically flags potential compliance breaches, including unsubstantiated claims, crypto misrepresentations, and other high-risk language
- Suggests appropriate risk disclosures from the client-curated disclosure library and ensures content aligns with regulatory standards
- Enhances transparency, reduces manual review time, and empowers compliance teams to focus on what matters most
Stay ahead of risk. Deliver marketing materials with confidence and clarity—powered by Star.
2. Employee Supervision On Outside Activities
Regulatory Focus:
FINRA Rules 3270 and 3280 are designed to help firms maintain oversight and manage risk by ensuring transparency around employees’ activities outside the scope of their primary role.
- Rule 3270 requires registered individuals to disclose any Outside Business Activities (OBAs) in writing to their firm before engaging in them.
- Rule 3280 requires all associated persons to provide written notice of any Private Securities Transactions (PSTs)—even if conducted outside the firm.
These disclosures allow firms to assess the activity and decide whether to approve, restrict, or prohibit it.
If a PST involves selling compensation, and the firm approves it, the firm must treat it like a firm-related transaction—recording and supervising it accordingly.
Challenges Highlighted:
- Lack of due diligence on traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) OBAs and PSTs
- No review or recordkeeping of TradFi and DeFi-related activities
- Inadequate monitoring of TradFi and DeFi activities
How Star Can Help
Star’s powerful platform empowers firms to proactively supervise employee activity and reduce risk across both TradFi and DeFi. Key capabilities include:
- Flexible, configurable workflows for managing OBAs and PSTs in both TradFi and DeFi environments
- Seamless pre-clearance processes to streamline employee submissions and reduce friction
- Escalation workflows with designated and delegated supervisory paths for efficient review and approval
- Advanced monitoring, reporting, and real-time alerts to identify potential conflicts of interest and flag repeat violators before they become a problem
3. Manipulative Trading
Regulatory Focus:
Under FINRA Rule 3110 (Supervision), firms are required to maintain supervisory procedures that actively monitor employee and firm-related trading activity for potential violations of insider trading or manipulative practices.
FINRA Observations:
- Implementing processes to detect suspicious trades across employee and firm accounts
- Promptly launching internal investigations when red flags arise
- Ensuring compliance with the Exchange Act, FINRA rules, and other applicable regulations
With increased regulatory focus on market abuse, firms must be equipped to identify, investigate, and respond to potential trading violations—quickly and effectively.
How Star Can Help
Star’s Employee Personal Trading and Surveillance solutions empower compliance teams to:
- Monitor trading activity in real time across employee, firm, and related-party accounts
- Automatically flag potential insider trading and manipulative activity using pre-configured and customizable risk rules
- Use intelligent alerting and workflows to trigger fast, audit-ready internal investigations
- Access comprehensive reporting and analytics to identify trends, repeat violators, and high-risk behaviors
With Star, firms can meet their Rule 3110 obligations with speed, scale, and confidence—ensuring every trade is both visible and accountable.
Getting Ahead Of FINRA’s 2025 Priorities
FINRA’s 2025 report makes it clear: firms must evolve their employee compliance programs to meet rising expectations around communication oversight, trade supervision, and digital asset activity. The key to staying ahead lies in leveraging modern compliance technology.
“Stay proactive, not reactive. By embracing advanced compliance solutions now, firms can reduce regulatory exposure, protect their reputation, and build a resilient compliance framework ready for whatever 2025 brings.” – Steve Brown, Head of New Business for Star
Solutions like Star’s SaaS-based platform empower firms to:
- Automate and enforce high-risk workflows
- Monitor digital communications, mobile apps, and crypto-related transactions
- Strengthen operational resilience and supervisory oversight
- Integrate AI to flag and review public-facing content before it becomes a liability
To learn more about how Star can help your organization stay ahead of the constant shifts in regulations and to future-proof your compliance program, schedule a personalized demo here.
Riding the Regulatory Wave
