FINRA Firm Element Continuing Education

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently posted its 2025 catalog of Firm Element training for broker-dealers. In light of FINRA’s updates to its continuing education requirements, this is a good opportunity to review your firm’s CE requirements and training schedule. 

Annual Continuing Education Requirements

Every registered person is required to complete the Regulatory Element and the Firm Element of Continuing Education by December 31 of each year.  The Firm Element is created by each firm based on the results of their annual Needs Analysis and Training Plan.

Broker dealers might require their registered individuals to finish the Regulatory Element Continuing Education (CE) before FINRA’s deadline of December 31. However, FINRA will only mark someone as CE inactive if they miss this December 31 deadline. In some cases, FINRA may give extensions past the deadline, but this is decided on an individual basis.

New FinPro and FINRA Gateway Regulatory Element CE Status Code 

Regulatory Element CE will be administered through each individual’s Financial Professional Gateway (FinPro) account. 

Beginning on October 26, 2024, a new “Not Required” Regulatory Element CE status code has been made available in FinPro, FINRA Gateway, Classic CRD and FINRA Gateway Reports to help clarify expectations for certain industry professionals who do not hold any active FINRA or other SRO registrations that require completion of annual Regulatory Element CE. The “Not Required” status applies to individuals who terminated their registration(s) and do not have any active SRO registration(s), and therefore are not required to take required Regulatory Element CE while they are not actively registered. Upon re-registration, an industry professional may have to complete Regulatory Element CE assignments that became due while they were not registered. 

Content of the Regulatory Element Continuing Education

Content of the Regulatory Element CE is specific to each registration that an individual maintains. The content includes information on significant rule changes and other important regulatory developments that took place during the year.

Firm Element of Continuing Education Content

The content of the Firm Element program will depend on the firm’s size, structure, scope of business and regulatory concerns. FINRA’s minimum requirements state that “Training must cover topics related to professional responsibility and to the role, activities or responsibilities of the registered person.” The training program used must cover the needs of the firm based on an Annual Needs Analysis, the CE program must be in writing, and records of completion must be kept for all participants.

FINRA has also created a CE Content Catalog firms may use to purchase training materials for their Firm Element CE. There is no requirement to use these materials; they are an optional resource.

Achieving Regulatory Compliance

Oyster Consultants have extensive experience providing compliance support to broker-dealers. Among other services we can provide assistance with your Continuing Education needs.  Oyster Consulting provides a team of consultants and software to help you organize and automate your compliance program. Leverage our knowledge and experience to support your efforts to achieve compliance.