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Brokers Get Strict Social Networking Rules

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-farmville-at-work dept.

eldavojohn writes "If you're a broker or work for a brokerage firm then you better think twice before posting content to Facebook and Twitter. It seems the static parts of the pages like your profile must be approved and fall under the watch of FINRA. But a post to Facebook or a tweet might constitute a 'public appearance' representing your firm. Which means that 'firms must supervise these interactive electronic communications under NASD Rule 3010 in a manner reasonably designed to ensure that they do not violate the content requirements of FINRA's communications rules.' It's days like these I'm glad I don't work on Wall Street or have jury duty."

4 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Read the article by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're a registered broker or work for firm that sells any sort of investment products, you'll want to think twice before blurting out anything that could be construed as investment advice on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site.

  2. Moronic commentary by Malc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " It's days like these I'm glad I don't work on Wall Street or have jury duty."

    And if you worked for the CIA, would you be complaining that you can't tweet about classified information? If you've chosen to work on Wall Street, the chances are that you accepted that there are some things you can't talk about long before Facebook and Twitter came along (or if you've just started, you know it's part of the territory). So what?

    1. Re:Moronic commentary by MrMista_B · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Then whoever's complaining doesn't know what they're talking about. From The Fine Article:

      'If you're a registered broker or work for firm that sells any sort of investment products, you'll want to think twice before blurting out anything that could be construed as investment advice on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site.'

      It's a non-story.

  3. Re:Exactly backwards by pnuema · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Speaking as a former brokerage employee...

    Didn't read the article, but the industry has very specific rules about what you can tell a client. Basically, you can never guarantee something will make money. Firms have to be able to produce 7 years of correspondence from a broker on demand. This meant that as an employee of a firm, while at work I was not able to use any communication channel not controlled by the firm (due to archive reasons). This meant no web mail, twitter, Facebook, anything. From what I see, FINRA is just pointing out that even though technology has changed, these rules have not.