MyComplianceOffice Blog

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has released its 2025 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report, providing crucial insights into the regulatory landscape for member firms. This year's report covers a broad range of topics, including some new areas of focus plus perennial areas of regulatory concern.

A conflict of interest happens when a person with multiple interests serves one to the detriment of another. For example, an individual may seek to create personally-beneficial outcomes at the expense of fairness and competition. They may engage in activities that put the confidentiality of their firms’ information at risk or put personal financial gains ahead of their firms’, clients’, or broader financial market’s interests.

It’s 4PM on a Friday. You were hoping to wrap up for the day to start your weekend, but there’s a deal to be closed. The CEO is looking for confirmation that there are no conflicts around outside business activities or any other potential conflicts of interest, and he needs that info stat.

Compared with other industries, the financial services industry inherently has an elevated risk of conflicts of interest. In particular, connected persons and close personal relationships can influence decisions that result in significant business and financial impact. After all, we’re all human and sometimes act based on emotion. Unfortunately, those human, emotional connections can sometimes lead to severe conflicts.

Let’s talk about remote employees working at two jobs. Have you come across this before? A recent Wall Street Journal article covers stories of employees taking advantage of working from home to make more money and double their salary. The article says there is a rise of such practices among white-collar workers in industries ranging from tech to banking to insurance.