Providing Tools and Resources to Protect Investors

Reliable information is an essential part of making informed investment decisions. FINRA and other industry regulators offer free tools and resources to help investors research investment professionals, firms and products with confidence.

One valuable resource offered by FINRA is BrokerCheck, a free tool that allows investors to research financial professionals and firms. With BrokerCheck, you can research the background and experience of financial professionals and firms, including employment history, qualifications, disciplinary records and other key information. The tool covers FINRA-registered financial professionals and firms, as well as investment advisor representatives and firms registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities regulators.

In addition, FINRA and the National Futures Association (NFA) have cross-linked their investor protection databases to give investors easier access to background information on financial professionals and firms across both the securities and derivatives industries. FINRA's BrokerCheck now directly links to NFA's Background Affiliation Status Information Center (BASIC), and BASIC contains a reciprocal link to BrokerCheck. BASIC is a free tool that investors can use to research the background of derivatives industry professionals and firms.

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