FINRA BrokerCheck® Terms of Use

Last modified: November 17, 2023

FINRA collects, compiles, organizes, indexes, digitally converts and maintains regulatory data from registered persons, member firms, government agencies and other sources and maintains the data in its proprietary Central Registration Depository ("CRD®") database and system. FINRA releases portions of such data through FINRA BrokerCheck, which provides data from the CRD system to the investing public. BrokerCheck is offered pursuant to FINRA's responsibilities as a self-regulatory organization, and, in particular, pursuant to Section 15A (i) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

1. Agreement.

a. These BrokerCheck Terms of Use govern access and use of BrokerCheck and the BrokerCheck data. By accessing and using BrokerCheck or the BrokerCheck data, you certify that (1) you have read and understand these Terms of Use and (2) you agree to these Terms of Use and the terms and conditions displayed at http://www.finra.org/legal-notices. By agreeing to these Terms of Use on behalf of an organization, you certify that you have the authority of that organization to enter into these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, you must cease all use of BrokerCheck and the BrokerCheck data. FINRA reserves any rights, privileges, or immunities not expressly granted under these Terms of Use.

b. FINRA reserves the right to change these Terms of Use from time to time at its sole discretion. Your access and use of BrokerCheck or the BrokerCheck data constitutes your acknowledgement of and agreement to the updated Terms of Use. Your access and use of BrokerCheck and the BrokerCheck data will be subject to the most current version of the Terms of Use posted on the home or login page of BrokerCheck at the time of such use. You should periodically check the "Terms of Use" link on the home or login page of BrokerCheck to view the then-current Terms of Use.

2. Changes to BrokerCheck. FINRA reserves the right to modify or discontinue BrokerCheck with or without notice to you. FINRA will not be liable to you or any third party should it exercise its right to modify or discontinue BrokerCheck. If you object to any such changes, your sole recourse will be to cease access to BrokerCheck and any data accessed through BrokerCheck. Continued use of BrokerCheck or BrokerCheck data following notice of any such changes will indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and satisfaction with BrokerCheck as so modified.

3. Ownership. BrokerCheck is a proprietary product and employs proprietary software. FINRA reserves all intellectual property and proprietary rights in and to BrokerCheck. You acknowledge and agree that FINRA is the exclusive and rightful owner of, and shall retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to, all registered and unregistered, and any future registered, names, trademarks, trade dress, service marks, domain names, and logos, or any derivation thereof, and all goodwill therein, of FINRA and its affiliates ("Licensed Marks"). Nothing contained in these Terms of Use shall serve to transfer to you any ownership or proprietary interest in the Licensed Marks.

4. Permitted Uses. Subject to Section 6 (Restrictions) and any other restrictions in these Terms of Use, the data provided through BrokerCheck shall be used ONLY for your own personal or professional use, and in accordance with these Terms of Use:

a. to assist you, your clients or your organization in determining whether to conduct or continue to conduct securities or commodities business with FINRA member firms or their associated persons;

b. to assist you, your clients or your organization in judicial proceedings or arbitration proceedings relating to securities or commodities transactions;

c. to assist you, your clients or your organization in complying with securities or financial services laws, rules and regulations; or

d. for non-commercial purposes consistent with the promotion of just and equitable principles of trade and the protection of investors and the public interest.

All other uses are strictly prohibited.

5. Investor Protection, Academic, Compliance and Regulatory Uses. Notwithstanding the restrictions set forth in Section 4 and Section 6 (e), (f), (g), and (k), the BrokerCheck data may be copied and compiled, including by use of data mining, scraping or harvesting tools (including robots) or similar data gathering or extraction tools, and used solely for investor protection, academic, compliance or regulatory purposes, provided that you comply with these Terms of Use, and, if such data is communicated, sold, leased, loaned, distributed, transferred, or sublicensed to any third party, you must also comply with the following requirements:

i. clearly indicate BrokerCheck is the source of any data;

ii. include links to BrokerCheck and the Terms of Use with the BrokerCheck data, and a notice that use of BrokerCheck data is subject to the Terms of Use;

iii. specify how the BrokerCheck data is used, describe any changes made to the BrokerCheck data and describe your basis for any recommendations or ratings of brokers or firms derived from the BrokerCheck data;

iv. provide a reasonable mechanism for third parties to report to you any errors or outdated information in the BrokerCheck data and (a) timely correct such errors or outdated information if produced by you or (b) if BrokerCheck is the source of such errors or outdated information, instruct such third party to notify FINRA; and

v. disclose when the BrokerCheck data was retrieved, and use reasonable efforts to ensure such data is the most current data available through BrokerCheck at the time of publication/distribution.

6. Restrictions. Notwithstanding the permitted uses of BrokerCheck described in Section 4 of these Terms of Use and except as otherwise provided in Section 5, in no case may you:

a. decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, modify, distribute, or create derivative works or improvements from BrokerCheck or any portion thereof, or attempt to discover any source code, protocols, or other trade secrets in BrokerCheck;

b. obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorized access to FINRA’s network;

c. incorporate BrokerCheck into any hardware or software device;

d. use, export, or re-export BrokerCheck in violation of applicable laws or regulations;

e. sell, lease, loan, distribute, transfer, or sublicense BrokerCheck or the data contained therein or access thereto or derive income from the use or provision thereof, whether for direct commercial or monetary gain or otherwise;

f. develop or create a database of data using BrokerCheck or the data contained therein;

g. use any process to monitor or copy BrokerCheck in bulk, , or use any data mining, scraping or harvesting tools (including robots) or any similar data gathering or extraction tools;

h. use any device, software or routine to bypass any software or hardware that limits the volume or frequency of requests for the BrokerCheck data;

i. attempt to interfere or interfere with the proper working of BrokerCheck, including taking any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on BrokerCheck (including by making voluminous, excessive or repetitive requests for data) or FINRA;

j. alter or modify the factual content of the BrokerCheck data;

k. create derivative works or improvements from the BrokerCheck data;

l. use BrokerCheck or the data contained therein in any unlawful, fraudulent, misleading, obscene, harmful, threatening, harassing, defamatory or hateful manner, that invades the privacy of any third party, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with these Terms of Use;

m. use BrokerCheck data for unsolicited marketing of goods or services;

n. use BrokerCheck or Licensed Marks in a manner that infringes, violates or misappropriates FINRA’s, its affiliates, or a third party’s intellectual property rights;

o. display BrokerCheck or the Licensed Marks on any website or in any manner that disparages FINRA or is otherwise threatening, vulgar or inappropriate as FINRA determines, in its sole discretion; or

p. use any portion of BrokerCheck in the development of any software program or in conjunction with any machine learning, neural network, deep learning, predictive analytics or other artificial intelligence computer or software program, including, without limitation, by using any portion of BrokerCheck in conjunction with a model, algorithm, or process that is designed to predict trades for or within an individual portfolio, fund, or other investment vehicle; or

q. use BrokerCheck for any purposes, other than those specified in Section 4 or Section 5, for which you have not been granted written permission by FINRA.

FINRA reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to BrokerCheck with or without notice to you, in the event that FINRA believes that you have violated any provision of these Terms of Use.

7. Requests. All requests for permission to access or use BrokerCheck or the BrokerCheck data for a purpose or in a manner not otherwise permitted under these Terms of Use must be made in writing to FINRA, clearly stating the proposed purpose and manner of the use. Requests must be submitted to FINRA at: (i) FINRA BrokerCheck, 9509 Key West Avenue, Rockville, Maryland, 20850; or (ii) brokercheck@finra.org.

FINRA, in its sole discretion, may approve or reject any requests.

8. BrokerCheck Data Disclosures.

a. Member firms, registered persons, government agencies, and other sources file disclosure data with FINRA. Consistent with its responsibilities as a self-regulatory organization, FINRA performs a regulatory review of the disclosure data filed before it makes the data available through BrokerCheck. Most disclosure data is available through BrokerCheck within two business days of being filed. In certain limited circumstances, disclosure data may not be available through BrokerCheck within the usual timeframe, but will be made available as soon as practicable.

b. Consistent with rules, policies and procedures approved by the SEC, FINRA will disclose data on individuals, through BrokerCheck, for ten years after the termination of the individual's FINRA registration and, in certain cases, indefinitely. Additionally, FINRA will disclose indefinitely data on brokerage firms through BrokerCheck. Disclosure data reported to FINRA after an individual’s or brokerage firm’s registration has terminated may not have been reviewed by the brokerage firm or individual; in addition, brokerage firms and individuals who are no longer registered are not required to independently report such data.

c. BrokerCheck includes only data provided to CRD. In substantially all cases, the data provided through BrokerCheck represents the verbatim record as it was reported to FINRA. However, in certain limited circumstances, FINRA combined data about a single event that was reported by different sources (e.g., a record reporting data on an event that was submitted by a brokerage firm may contain data reported on the same event that was submitted by a regulator). This condition occurred when the data in the legacy CRD system was converted (i.e., reformatted and transferred) to Web CRD, the Internet-based Central Registration Depository. This condition affects a small percentage of records reported to FINRA prior to August 1999. These converted records contain data that was reported to FINRA in accordance with appropriate reporting protocols applicable to the source filers (e.g., brokerage firms and regulators); however, because of the combination of data from different reporting sources, a record disclosed through BrokerCheck may not reflect the actual filing submitted to FINRA.

d. The "Individual Broker comments," "Brokerage Firm comments" and "Regulator comments" appear verbatim as they were filed in CRD via Forms U4, U5, and U6. These comments were not written by FINRA and have not been edited by FINRA, although FINRA reserves the right to redact customer names, confidential customer data, or offensive or potentially defamatory language from a BrokerCheck Report consistent with policies and procedures approved by the SEC.

9. Disclaimers; Limitation of Liability.

a. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT BROKERCHECK IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITH ALL FAULTS AND THAT YOUR USE OF BROKERCHECK SHALL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FINRA, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, AND LICENSORS (THE “FINRA PARTIES”) DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN CONNECTION WITH BROKERCHECK AND YOUR USE THEREOF. FINRA MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE QUALITY, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF BROKERCHECK AND ASSUMES NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY: (I) ERRORS OR OMMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT; (II) TECHNICAL ERRORS AFFECTING BROKERCHECK IN ANY WAY; (III) BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH BROKERCHECK BY ANY THIRD PARTY; AND/OR (IV) LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF BROKERCHECK.

b. NO ADVICE, INFORMATION, OR DATA, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM FINRA OR THROUGH OR FROM USE OF BROKERCHECK SHALL BE INTENDED TO PROVIDE ANY LEGAL, TAX, INVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE OR TO BE COMPLETE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER CONTAINED THEREIN.

c. IN NO EVENT WILL THE FINRA PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOSS OF USE, DATA, BUSINESS OR PROFITS) OR FOR THE COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OF USE OR THE USE OR DISTRIBUTION OF BROKERCHECK, WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY ARISES FROM ANY CLAIM BASED UPON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT FINRA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE. SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THIS RESTRICTION MAY NOT APPLY.

10. Privacy. In consideration of your use of BrokerCheck, you agree that FINRA may collect generic tracking data related to your or your end users’ use of BrokerCheck in accordance with the FINRA website Privacy Policy found at http://www.finra.org/finra-website-privacy-policy.

11. Severability. If a court of competent jurisdiction holds any provision of these Terms of Use to be unenforceable, then that provision is to be construed either by modifying it to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable (if permitted by law) or disregarding it (if not). If an unenforceable provision is modified or disregarded in accordance with this Section, all other provisions of these Terms of Use are to remain in effect as written.

12. Third-Party Beneficiaries. Nothing in this Agreement confers any legal or equitable right, benefit or remedy upon any party other than you and FINRA.

13. Injunction. In the event of any actual or threatened unauthorized use, loss or disclosure of the BrokerCheck data, FINRA will be entitled, without waiving any other rights or remedies, to immediate injunctive or equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction and may obtain any order restraining any threatened or future unauthorized use, loss or disclosure, in each case, on use of affidavit evidence or otherwise, and without furnishing proof of actual damages or posting a bond or other surety.

14. Governing Law. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and FINRA with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersede all previous agreements between you and FINRA with respect to such subject matter. These Terms of Use shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. You and FINRA agree that any claim arising under these Terms of Use shall only be brought in the state or federal courts located in the County and State of New York. You and FINRA agree to submit to personal jurisdiction in that court and expressly waive any right to a jury trial.

For a summary of usage restrictions, see How May I Use BrokerCheck?