What recordkeeping rules does FINRA impose on broker-dealers for client communications?

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the self-regulatory organization that oversees U.S. broker-dealers. Its recordkeeping rules for client communications work alongside the books-and-records requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act, and together they shape one of the more demanding records environments in the private sector. The core principle is simple: if a firm communicates with the investing public, it must be able to capture, retain, supervise, and produce those communications on demand.

What Must Be Kept

FINRA treats communications broadly. The obligation generally covers correspondence with individual clients, “retail communications” distributed more widely, and internal communications that bear on the business. Importantly, the rules are channel-neutral. Email, text messages, chat platforms, social media posts, and other electronic messaging fall within scope when they concern firm business — regardless of whether they occur on a firm device or a personal one.

Firms must retain these records for prescribed periods and keep them accessible for examination. As a practical matter, this means content cannot be deleted or altered before its retention period ends.

How Records Must Be Maintained

Long-standing SEC and FINRA rules require that certain records be preserved in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable format — often described as “write once, read many” (WORM) — so that stored communications cannot be quietly modified. Firms must also be able to index and retrieve records promptly, and many are expected to designate a third party able to produce records if the firm itself cannot.

Supervision and Review

Recordkeeping is paired with a supervisory duty. Firms must establish written procedures to review incoming and outgoing communications, ensuring content is fair, balanced, and not misleading, and that prohibited or off-channel communications are detected.

Why It Matters for Records Professionals

The FINRA framework illustrates several universal records-management themes: defining the record regardless of format, enforcing defensible retention, protecting integrity, and enabling timely retrieval. Regulators have repeatedly penalized firms for “off-channel” communications that escaped capture, underscoring that a retention policy only works if every relevant channel is governed. These same disciplines — classification, retention scheduling, and integrity controls — underpin sound recordkeeping in any regulated setting.

For broader foundations, see the fundamentals topic hub.