FINRA member firms

Broker dealer compliance software and FINRA compliance software that tracks every rule change and annual deadline

Broker dealer compliance software keeps the rulebook side of a FINRA firm current: which rules apply to you, what changed this week, and which section of your written supervisory procedures it touches. ComplianceOfficer reads FINRA notices and SEC releases at the source, flags the gap, and keeps the record behind your Rule 3120 report and CEO certification. It costs $149 a month.

FINRA Regulatory Notices, daily
WSP sections flagged on change
Rule 3120 and 3130 evidence
4530 and BCP dates on one calendar

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Broker-dealer, US · what a scan returns

§ 01 Supervisory system and WSPs FINRA 3110
§ 02 Annual CEO certification FINRA 3130
§ 03 Outside activities, Rule 3290 Changed
§ 04 Daily reserve computation Watching

§ 02

Supervision under Rule 3110

FINRA supervision and inspection cycle, office by office

Rule 3110 sets how often each kind of location gets inspected. The structure rarely changes. The rules around it do, which is how a firm ends up with procedures that describe last year's rulebook.

Home office

Designated principals, CCO, CEO

Rule 3120 test and report to senior management, at least annually

OSJ

Office of supervisory jurisdiction

Inspected at least annually, on a calendar-year basis

Branch office

Non-supervisory

Inspected at least every three years, more often if the activity warrants it

Non-branch location

Includes a residential supervisory location (3110.19)

Regular periodic schedule, presumed at least every three years

The remote inspections pilot (Rule 3110.18) and the residential supervisory location category (Rule 3110.19) both came out of 2024 rule changes, and both changed what an inspection program has to document. That is the kind of change ComplianceOfficer puts in front of the principal who owns the WSP section, with the date and the source.

§ 03

What moved in 2026

FINRA compliance software has to keep up with a busy year

Four changes from the last twelve months, each touching a different part of a broker-dealer's procedures. A firm that reads FINRA's weekly update every week catches all of them. A firm where the CCO also runs operations usually catches two.

The outside activities change is the one with the longest tail. Rule 3290 was approved on September 15, 2026 with no effective date yet, so procedures have to be rewritten against a date that FINRA will announce later. Somebody has to watch for that notice.

Get started for $149 a month Run the broker-dealer scan

Broker-dealer register · changes

4 flagged

FINRA Rule 3290, outside activitiesApproved

SEC Release 34-106381, September 15, 2026 · effective date to be set by Regulatory Notice

Replaces Rules 3270 and 3280. Only investment-related activities are reportable, and work done for an affiliate falls outside the rule.
Rule 15c3-3 daily reserve computationIn force

Compliance date June 30, 2026, extended from December 31, 2025

Carrying broker-dealers with average total credits of $500 million or more compute customer and PAB reserves daily.
Regulation S-P amendmentsIn force

Larger entities December 3, 2025 · smaller entities June 3, 2026

Written incident response program, service provider oversight, and customer notice within 30 days of a breach.
2026 Regulatory Oversight ReportExam focus

Published by FINRA in December 2025

A new section on generative AI asks firms to tailor supervision and testing to GenAI tools, next to expanded cybersecurity, small-cap fraud and third-party risk content.

§ 04

The recurring obligations

FINRA compliance management software starts from this list

These are the obligations almost every FINRA member carries, with the cadence the rule sets. They are the first rows of a broker-dealer register.

Obligation	Rule	Cadence	What an examiner asks for
Supervisory system and WSPs	FINRA 3110	Ongoing, updated when rules change	Current procedures naming who supervises what
Supervisory control testing	FINRA 3120	At least annually	The report to senior management and the tests behind it
CEO certification	FINRA 3130	Annually, plus a CEO and CCO meeting	Evidence of the processes being certified
Complaint statistics	FINRA 4530(d)	Quarterly, by the 15th of the following month	Filings matching the complaint log
Reportable events	FINRA 4530(a)	Within 30 calendar days	When the firm knew, and when it filed
Business continuity plan	FINRA 4370	Reviewed annually	The dated review and the emergency contacts
Reg BI and Form CRS	SEC 15l-1, 17a-14	At each recommendation; CRS updated on material change	Care, conflict and disclosure records
Books and records	SEC 17a-3, 17a-4	Retention periods by record type	Retrievable, complete records, including messages

ComplianceOfficer keeps these rows, their dates and their source text in one register. When FINRA or the SEC changes one, the row turns red, the matching WSP section is flagged, and the review you do is logged. That log is what you hand over at the Rule 3120 report and the 3130 meeting.

What it costs

Broker dealer compliance software pricing, from published lists and recorded contracts

Few vendors in this market print a price on their own site. These are the figures that are public, read on 1 October 2026. Vendr numbers are contracts reported by buyers, not quotes.

Vendor	Main job at a broker-dealer	What is public about the price	Billed on
Smarsh	Capture, archiving, supervision review	AWS Marketplace: Cloud Capture at a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee. Vendr median $22,759, range $3,288 to $131,276	Platform fee plus per user, per year, per content type
Global Relay	Archiving and surveillance	Vendr median $6,793, range $975 to $7,800	Quoted per user and channel
StarCompliance, MyComplianceOffice	Personal trading, outside activities, attestations	No list price. Vendr has pages for both with no recorded contracts	Quoted, usually per covered employee
Red Oak	Advertising and communications review (Rule 2210)	No list price found	Quoted
ComplianceOfficer	Rule change tracking, WSP gaps, 3120 and 3130 evidence	$149 a month or $894 a year, published	Flat, per firm

The archive dominates the budget, and its bill grows with every channel you switch on. Smarsh's metering is per user and per content type, so adding text messages for 40 registered reps is a second line, not a setting. The full breakdown, including an older public-sector price list, is in Smarsh pricing, and how Global Relay and Theta Lake compare on price and contract terms is in Smarsh competitors. For GRC suites more broadly, see compliance software pricing.

§ 06

Honest fit

Best broker dealer compliance software for each part of the job

Buy an archive for

Email, text and chat capture

Rule 17a-4 and the off-channel communications cases make this a must. Smarsh and Global Relay own it. We do not archive messages.

Buy an employee compliance tool for

Trading, OBAs and attestations

Brokerage feeds, pre-clearance and outside activity forms for every rep. StarCompliance and MyComplianceOffice do this. We do not.

Buy ComplianceOfficer for

Knowing what changed and proving you acted

FINRA and SEC changes mapped to your WSPs, a calendar that updates itself, and the review log behind 3120 and 3130.

§ 07

Who uses it

Compliance software for small broker-dealers and the principals who run them

CCOs with a second job

You are also FINOP or head of operations. The register tells you what changed this week in five minutes.

Independent BDs

Many branches and outside activities. Rule 3290 is a procedures rewrite for you, on a date still to come.

Capital markets boutiques

A narrow business with a narrow rulebook. Track just the rules that apply, not the whole FINRA manual.

Dual registrants

FINRA and Advisers Act obligations in one register, with Reg S-P covered once for both entities.

Firms that also run an advisory business can track both rulebooks together, see RIA compliance software. The AML program a broker-dealer must keep under FINRA Rule 3310 is covered on AML compliance software, and banks and fintechs sit on the financial services compliance software page.

§ 08

Questions broker-dealers ask

What software do broker-dealer compliance officers use?

Most firms run three kinds of tool side by side. A communications archive with supervision queues (Smarsh, Global Relay), an employee compliance tool for personal trading, outside activities and attestations (StarCompliance, MyComplianceOffice), and something that tracks what FINRA and the SEC change and maps it to the written supervisory procedures. ComplianceOfficer is the third kind, for $149 a month.

How much does broker dealer compliance software cost?

Archiving is the largest line. Smarsh lists Cloud Capture on AWS Marketplace at a $25,000 annual minimum platform fee plus a per-user, per-year fee for each content type, and its recorded contracts on Vendr have a $22,759 median. Global Relay's Vendr median is $6,793. Employee compliance suites are quoted. ComplianceOfficer publishes $149 a month or $894 a year.

What are the FINRA compliance requirements for broker-dealers?

The core of it is a supervisory system with written procedures under Rule 3110, annual testing of those controls with a report to senior management under Rule 3120, and an annual CEO certification of compliance processes under Rule 3130. Around that sit Rule 4530 event and complaint reporting, a business continuity plan reviewed every year under Rule 4370, Reg BI and Form CRS, and SEC books and records rules.

What is the FINRA Rule 3130 CEO certification?

Each year the chief executive officer of a FINRA member must certify that the firm has processes to establish, maintain, review, test and modify written compliance policies and supervisory procedures. The rule also requires the CEO to meet with the chief compliance officer at least once a year to discuss those processes. It certifies the process, not that the firm committed no violations.

How often does FINRA require branch office inspections?

FINRA Rule 3110(c) requires every office of supervisory jurisdiction to be inspected at least annually on a calendar-year basis. Non-supervisory branch offices must be inspected at least every three years, and non-branch locations on a regular periodic schedule, with a general presumption of at least every three years absent red flags.

When does FINRA Rule 3290 take effect?

Not yet. The SEC approved Rule 3290 on September 15, 2026 in Release No. 34-106381, and FINRA said it will announce the effective date in a separate Regulatory Notice. Once effective, it replaces Rules 3270 and 3280, narrows reporting to investment-related outside activities and takes work done for an affiliate out of scope.

Does Regulation S-P apply to broker-dealers?

Yes. The 2024 Regulation S-P amendments cover SEC-registered broker-dealers as well as advisers and funds. A firm needs a written incident response program, oversight of service providers and notice to affected customers within 30 days. Larger entities had to comply by December 3, 2025 and smaller entities by June 3, 2026.

Sign your next 3130 certification with the record already kept

One register for your firm, watched daily, for $149 a month. How the watch works is on regulatory change management software, and the procedures side on policy management software.

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