FINRA also has the ability to compel brokerage firms to provide data on any transaction, any account, at any time.
Commissioner Piwowar called the CARDS program a solution in search of a problem. And he is 100% correct.We are still waiting for FINRA to explain 1) why it needs this data, and 2) how it is going to prevent hackers from accessing it, and using the data to trade, or engage in identity theft.
MIT says you cannot protect the information, hackers will figure out the identities of the account holders, even without names and social security numbers. The WSJ previously reported about the MIT findings - Metadata Can Expose Person’s Identity Even Without Name - New Analytic Formula Identifies People Without Names, Account Numbers
FINRA needs to stop putting the country's personal financial information at risk simply to make it's job easier...assuming CARDS makes its job easier. FINRA claims that having all of that account information and transaction information will enable it to spot suitability issues. Isn't that what is suitability rules are designed to do? Isn't that what its exam teams are taught to spot? Is the small percentage of trades which are possibly unsuitable, engaged in by an insignificant percentage of brokers, worth risking the financial and data security of every person in this country who maintains a brokerage account?
Has FINRA lost its collective mind?
For more information, go to US SEC's Piwowar says skeptical of FINRA's data collection proposal | Reuters
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