FINRA Exam Restructure Presentation at 2015 NSCP Conference

November 3, at the 2015 National Society of Compliance Professionals Annual Conference, in National Harbor, MD, FINRA gave a presentation on its proposed restructure of the FINRA qualification Exam Program. Attendees learned the following regarding the new exam restructure – Essentials Exam and top-off exams… Continue reading

November 3, at the 2015 National Society of Compliance Professionals Annual Conference, in National Harbor, MD, FINRA gave a presentation on its proposed restructure of the FINRA qualification Exam Program.  The primary presenter was Joseph McDonald, the FINRA staff member in charge of the Qualification Exam Program.

Attendees learned the following regarding the new exam restructure:

Revised Exam Structure
— Revised Exam Structure —
  • Existing qualification exams will be divided into a single “core” exam, currently called the “Essentials Exam,” and then a “top-off” exam (Series 6, Series 7, Series 79, etc.).  FINRA says this will reduce redundancy in the current exams.   This means that if the Essentials Exam will be 100 questions long, the revised Series 7 will be approximately 150 questions.  Currently, the Series 7 is composed of 250 questions.
  • Content on the Essentials Exam will be stable and will cover core subjects such as the structure and functioning of the securities industry, the regulatory agencies and their responsibilities, basic economics, product knowledge (stocks, bonds, mutual funds), regulated and prohibited practices and professional conduct.
  • The Essentials Exam will be different in that a person will not need to be associated with a member firm (you will not need to have a job in the securities industry) in order to take the Essentials Exam.  Also, passing the Essentials Exam will be valid for four years.  Current exams are valid for two years.
  • FINRA hopes that non-registered employees of member firms will take the Essentials Exam and increase the level of industry knowledge among all employees.
  • Passing the Essentials Exam alone will not be enough to qualify an individual to be registered.  This means that the Essentials Exam will not appear in BrokerCheck, FINRA’s public online database of registered individuals and firms.  FINRA says it’s building an enrollment management system that will permit people to take the Essentials Exam without using the U-4 and having to get fingerprinted.
  • FINRA plans to maintain the 30/30/180 day rule for those who fail exams.
  • Currently registered individuals will be grandfathered into the Essentials Exam and, if such a person leaves the industry, it would be valid for four years.
  • FINRA hopes to launch the Essentials Exam and top-off exams in early 2017.

FINRA also mentioned plans to retire the following exams and categories because they say that too few take these exams to make them worth continuing. Individuals registered in these categories will be permitted to retain their registration:

  • Series 62 (Corporate Securities Representative)
  • Series 42 (Options Representative)
  • Series 72 (Government Securities Representative)

FINRA is also considering retiring the Series 11 (Order Processing Assistant).

Fun Fact:  The FINRA qualification exam program began in 1956 with the Series 1 exam.

Proposed FINRA Exam Restructure

FINRA plans to reduce the number of representative-level examinations, currently numbering 16, in order to simplify the examination program and reduce the amount of redundancy across exams. Continue reading

On May 28, 2015 at the FINRA annual conference in Washington, DC, a panel of FINRA and industry representatives discussed proposed changes to restructure FINRA’s representative-level qualification program and fielded questions from attendees present at the meeting.

According to Joe McDonald, Senior Director, Testing and Continuing Education Department, FINRA plans to reduce the number of representative-level examinations, currently numbering 16, in order to simplify the examination program and reduce the amount of redundancy across exams.  FINRA proposes to do this by restructuring the current exam program into a format whereby all potential representative-level registrants would take a core general-knowledge exam and then additional specialized knowledge exam(s).  The general knowledge exam is being called the Securities Industry Essentials Examination (SIE) or “essentials exam,” and the specialized exams are being called “top-off” exams.  According to McDonald, the proposed changes will restructure the exam program without rewriting registration rules.

The SIE, or essentials exam, content would include knowledge fundamental to working in the securities industry, such as basic product knowledge, structure and functioning of the securities markets, regulatory agencies and their functions, basic economics, professional conduct, and regulated and prohibited practices. A significant change in this restructure proposal is that individuals taking the SIE would not need to be associated with or sponsored by a FINRA member firm. Also, since the content of the essentials exam would be stable and less likely to change than the content on the top-off exams, a passing result on the SIE would be valid for 4 years, instead of the current 2 years for FINRA exams. This should make employment in the securities industry more accessible, flexible, and appealing.

Passing the SIE alone would not qualify an individual for registration with FINRA. To be eligible for registration, an individual who has passed the SIE would also need to pass the appropriate top-off exam pertaining to one’s job function. If, following an individual’s registration with a firm, the job functions for which the individual is registered change and one needs to become registered in an additional or alternative representative-level position, one would not need to pass the SIE again. Rather, the registered individual would need to pass only the appropriate top-off exam.

Each top-off exam would correlate to a current representative exam and registration position (e.g., Series 7 and General Securities Representative) and would test content specific to that registration category or job function. In addition, several of the current registration categories would be retired, reducing the number of representative-level qualification exams from the current 16 to the following 9:

Revised Exam Structure

 

 

The essentials exam is expected to be 75-100 questions in length and the specialized top-off exams are expected to be shorter than the current representative exams.  For example, the Series 7 is expected to be 150 questions in length, rather than the current 250 questions.

As part of the restructuring, FINRA is proposing to retire the current registration categories of Options Representative, Corporate Securities Representative and Government Securities Representative as well as the associated exams, the Series 42, Series 62 and Series 72, respectively.

FINRA is considering retiring the U.K. Securities Representative registration (Series 17) and the Canadian Securities Representative registrations (Series 37 & 38). Additionally, due to technological changes, FINRA is considering retiring the Order Processing Assistant registration (Series 11).

Under the proposal, representative-level registrants who are registered, or had been registered within the past 2 years, prior to the effective date of the proposal would be eligible to maintain those registrations without being subject to any additional requirements.  This means that most currently-registered individuals would be considered to have taken the SIE and it would be valid for 4 years after they leave the securities industry. Further, such individuals, with the exception of an Order Processing Assistant Representative, would be considered to have passed the SIE in FINRA’s CRD system; thus, if they wish to register in any additional representative category after the effective date of the proposal, they could do so by taking only the appropriate top-off exam. However, with respect to an individual who is not registered on the effective date of the proposal but was registered within the past two years prior to the effective date of the proposal, FINRA will administratively terminate the individual’s SIE status in the CRD system if such individual does not register with FINRA within 4 years from the date of the individual’s last registration.

FINRA says it will begin implementing changes in late 2016, starting with the SIE exam and 3 specialized exams that make up the majority of all registrations: the Investment Company and Variable Contracts Products Representative (Series 6), the General Securities Representative (Series 7), and the Investment Banking Representative (Series 79) registration categories.  FINRA says the remaining top-off exams will be implemented in the first half of 2017.

Panelists at the FINRA meeting said that they are beginning to look at the principal-level qualification exam program to identify an opportunity for similar restructuring.


Questions and answers from the 2015 FINRA Annual Conference audience included:

Q. Will it be possible to take the essentials and top-off exams on the same day?

A. Yes.

Q. What about failing and retaking?

A. If you fail the first time, FINRA says it will keep the same 30/30/180 day requirement.

Q. Will the exam question style change? 

A. No, FINRA says the current question and answer style will remain the same: a multiple-choice question with four answer choices.

Q. Will the essentials content be on the top-off exams?

A. No.

Q. Will there be a CE requirement for the essentials exam?

A. No.

Q. How will you keep the essentials exam questions secure?

A. New security measures to prevent questions from being stolen are being developed.  Also, FINRA says it has exam question pool rotation will be increased, meaning the exam questions will cycle faster than they have historically.

Q. What about the FINRA exam waiver program, will it be affected?

A. Yes, it will affect the program, but FINRA is not sure exactly how.

Q. Will the restructure affect state registration?

A. FINRA has been in touch with NASAA about the proposed exam changes and since FINRA, with the exception of retiring some registration categories, is not modifying registration rules, state registrations should not be affected much if at all.


You can find more information about the proposed restructure at: http://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/notice_doc_file_ref/Notice_Regulatory_15-20.pdf

The FINRA Notice seeks comment on the proposal from the industry and other interested persons.  You can email comments to pubcom@finra.org. The comment period ends July 27.

Before becoming effective, the proposed rule change must be authorized for filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the FINRA Board of Governors, and then must be filed with the SEC.

FINRA Proposes Upcoming Exam Changes

A FINRA spokesperson at the 2015 ARM Annual Education Conference recently proposed some important changes to securities exams. FINRA recently released the accompanying PowerPoint slides that cover the upcoming changes and outline other plans for the coming year. Continue reading

A FINRA spokesperson at the 2015 ARM Annual Education Conference recently proposed some important changes to securities exams. Solomon Exam Prep previously covered the main points made in FINRA’s address in our original blog post: FINRA Says Big Changes Coming to Securities Exams.

FINRA recently released the accompanying PowerPoint slides that cover the upcoming changes and outline other plans for the coming year. You can view the slides from FINRA’s presentation here (with the exam restructure information starting on slide 64): ARM 2015 Annual Educational Conference – FINRA Registration & Disclosure Systems and Policy Updates.

*Solomon Exam Prep will continue to keep you up-to-date on the latest information regarding these changes. Make sure to follow us to be alerted of any new developments.

FINRA Says Big Changes Coming to Securities Exams

Solomon Exam Prep has learned that FINRA is considering making the following changes to the securities exam system… Continue reading

Solomon Exam Prep has learned that FINRA is considering making the following changes to the securities exam system:

  • In 2015, the Series 55 and the Series 56 will be combined to become the Series 57. The Series 57 will not have a prerequisite.  A Series 57 rep will need the Series 24 to become a principal.
  • In 2016, FINRA will begin a new exam, to be called the Securities Industry Essentials exam (SIE).  The SIE will cover basic security industry knowledge and will become a prerequisite to the Series 6, Series 7, Series 22, Series 57, Series 79, Series 82, Series 86/87, and Series 99. You will not need be sponsored by a FINRA member firm to take the SIE.  SIE exam results will not appear in BrokerCheck.
  • After passing the SIE, individuals can continue on to what FINRA is calling a “top-off exam” for the Series 6, Series 7, Series 79, Series 82 and Series 99.  So, for example, if someone wants to be Series 7 and Series 79 registered, the individual will take and pass the SIE then take and pass the top-off exams for the Series 7 and Series 79. FINRA says the SIE is estimated to be 100 questions, and the top-off exams will consist of the remaining balance of questions (i.e. Series 7 currently has 250 questions, so the Series 7 top-off would contain 150 questions.)
  • Those who are currently registered will be grandfathered in and will not need to take the SIE.
  • Individuals who have been out of the industry 2-4 years will only need to take the top off.  Individuals who have been out of the industry for more than four years will need to take the SIE and top off.
  • FINRA will be retiring the Series 62 exam.

Follow Solomon Exam Prep as we keep you up-to-date on these important changes.