Over two years ago, I wrote about a pilot program FINRA established to test all-public arbitration panels. FINRA, the financial industry’s regulatory arm, will be submitting to the Securities and Exchange Commission a rule change proposal next month to make this option for claimants permanent.
The current pilot program involves 14 firms that agreed voluntarily to a set number of investor cases that did not involve individual brokers. The proposed rule would apply to all investor disputes against any firm and any individual broker. It would not apply to arbitration disputes involving only industry parties.
Roughly 60% of participants opted for the all-public panels.