In its January 2011 study, the SEC recommended the enhancement of BrokerCheck, a resource available on FINRA’s web page for the public to review information pertaining to brokers, registered representatives and investment adviser representatives.  As part of its mission of protecting the investing public, this week, FINRA rolled out an enhanced BrokerCheck.

With these improvements, the public now has access to the following: (1) centralized access to licensing and registration information for current and former brokers and brokerage firms, investment adviser representatives and firms; (2) the ability to search for and locate professionals based upon main and branch offices within a ZIP code radius; and (3) expanded educational content, including new search icons to enhance searching of commonly referenced terms.  FINRA is also currently reviewing responses to its request for comment on how better facilitate and increase use of BrokerCheck.

So what does this all mean?  In short, more and more information will be publicly available on BrokerCheck and the consuming public will come to rely on BrokerCheck even more for the selection of their financial professionals.  In turn, financial professionals must be even more dillgent to make sure that the information available on BrokerCheckwill not negatively reflect on them.  FINRA’s goal is to protect the public and BrokerCheck will be an even greater tool going forward.