FINRA’s membership application program (“MAP”) is changing.  FINRA’s review of initial membership and continuing membership applications for broker-dealers will now be centralized in the MAP.

Further, as part of MAP, continuing membership applications will be transitioned to an electronic format, just as new applications are treated.  FINRA is currently finalizing the MAP, but it has already implemented certain aspects, including, among other things, a centralized work flow.  That is, a party submitting a FINRA Rule 1017 application is assigned an examiner based upon FINRA’s work flow, and that examiner may not be in the same district as the member firm. 

FINRA hopes this process will streamline its ability to respond to changes in membership activity, and utilize its resources more efficiently.