FINRA Clarifies Some SocialMedia Rules

March 17, 2020: Today, FINRA hosted a webcast that was, primarily, and Q&A session between FINRA and two member companies: Bank of America / Merrill Lynch (BAML)  and New York Life Insurance. They provided some clarification on their positions set forth in FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06 (January 2010), but information from BAML and, especially, New York Life was the main focus.

These companies have been making forays into the social web, and New York Life has just completed a pilot program with a very small group of agents and recruiters (who recruit new agents). They are testing out both the technology that will help monitor and control access into the social media, and the use of  social media by these agents and recruiters. Their pilot included Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn was credited with successfully recruiting new agents. Both New York Life and BAML also believed that social media would help with lead generation for new customers.

In addition, intoday’s webcast, FINRA made clear that just approving comments on a blog does not constitute what they consider “adoption.” This was implied in  FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06 (January 2010), but not as explicitly stated as it was today.

They also seemed to imply that there are many social media activities that fall in a gray area between static content and interactive content, but did not provide any specifics

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