FINRA’s 2026 Regulatory Priorities: What They Mean — and How CCOs Can Prepare

In its 2026 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report, FINRA raises the bar for what defensible compliance looks like. The report signals a shift from static compliance documentation to demonstrable control effectiveness. This year’s message is unambiguous: if your compliance program isn’t provable, it’s not defensible. 

FINRA’s evolving priorities align with broad themes in the SEC’s 2026 examination focus, including governance of AI technologies, cybersecurity readiness, and proactive fiduciary oversight. As noted by Jamila Mayfield, Comply’s Chief Regulatory Services Officer, “Regulators are looking for evidence that compliance is happening in real time, not just on paper. Examiners want to see that your controls are embedded, enforced, and auditable.” 

For CCOs, this convergence presents both a challenge and an opportunity: 

• The challenge: Meeting heightened expectations across people, processes, and systems. 

• The opportunity: Leveraging solutions and services like Comply to modernize oversight, reduce risk, and build programs that hold up under scrutiny. 

Cybersecurity and Cyber-Enabled Fraud: The Top Risk Theme 

Unsurprisingly, cybersecurity remains at the top of FINRA’s risk list. This year’s report goes further, calling out ransomware, imposter sites, account takeovers, and GenAI-driven fraud. These areas reflect the SEC’s own attention to cyber risk and recordkeeping under regulations such as Reg S-P and Reg S-ID, which emphasize breach detection, incident response, and client notification.  

Tips for Compliance Leaders: 

• Conduct tabletop exercises and breach simulations to test incident response. 

• Align cybersecurity policies with Reg S-P’s notification and safeguarding expectations. 

• Review vendor-related exposure in IT and data management. 

How Comply Helps: 

• Score cybersecurity risks and map them to documented controls with the Risk Assessment tool. 

• Capture incident response drills directly in the Annual Review module. 

• Use Intelligent Policy Builder to distribute cyber policies and manage training and attestations. 

AI Governance and Supervisory Expectations 

For the first time, FINRA has dedicated guidance on GenAI risks, including content hallucinations and automated decision-making. Firms are expected to apply supervision and governance frameworks to GenAI tools just as they would to any critical business technology. The SEC’s 2026 priorities similarly highlight the need for explainability and controls around AI-based tools. 

Tips for CCOs: 

• Inventory all GenAI tools used across the firm and assess associated risks. 

• Create a governance framework for AI decision-making and disclosure. 

• Provide firmwide training on AI risks, limitations, and compliance responsibilities. 

How Comply Helps: 

• Schedule reviews and audits of AI tools using the Compliance Calendar. 

• Assign governance training and gather attestations using Certifications & Attestations. 
• Document policies, approvals, and controls tied to AI in a traceable workflow. 

Third-Party Risk and Vendor Oversight 

Under FINRA Forward, third-party risk oversight is a renewed regulatory focal point. The 2026 report emphasizes that outsourcing does not absolve firms of responsibility. Active oversight is required for services like cloud hosting, data storage, and outsourced marketing. 

Tips for CCOs: 

• Identify all vendors with access to sensitive data, infrastructure, or clients. 

• Maintain documentation of onboarding due diligence and annual reviews. 

• Link vendor oversight to broader risk domains within your compliance framework. 

How Comply Helps: 

• Assign owners and track due diligence milestones in the vendor due diligence module. 

• Map vendors to risk categories in the Risk Assessment tool. 

• Generate audit-ready reports that show documentation, review cadence, and remediation. 

Books and Records: From Archived to Auditable 

FINRA’s report calls out recordkeeping lapses more than 50 times – from eComms and trade approvals to WSP documentation. As Jamila Mayfield emphasized, “Regulators expect you to write what you do and do what you write. And they expect a timestamped trail showing both.” 

How Comply Helps: 

• Communications Archiving: Comply supports email, website, and social archiving with review workflows and escalation paths. Mobile capture for WhatsApp and iMessage is coming in Q1 2026. 

• Annual Review Linkage: Records feed directly into the firm’s Annual Review, connecting policies to proof. 
• Certification Status Dashboards: Monitor overdue or incomplete employee attestations in real time. 

Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) and Form CRS 

Reg BI is still front and center for FINRA. In 2026, the focus is on the practical implementation of Reg BI obligations – suitability reviews, fee transparency, and supervision of retail recommendations. Firms must also ensure that Form CRS is accurate, accessible, and kept current. 

How Comply Helps: 

• Supervisory Workflow Integration: Review disclosures, enforce preclearance, and tie supervisory actions to rep-level activities in the Communications Center. 

• Disclosures Management: Track and manage Form CRS attestations with audit-ready documentation. 

• Centralized Monitoring: Monitor Reg BI conflicts across reps with dashboards that track reviews, exceptions, and remediation. 

From Priorities to Practice: What CCOs Should Do This Quarter 

To move from awareness to action, here’s how CCOs can translate FINRA’s 2026 report into operational improvements: 

1. Audit your cybersecurity readiness. Ensure your incident response plan includes documented detection, notification, and recovery steps – and that your team has tested them. 
2. Inventory and assess GenAI use cases. Document where AI is used across your firm, ensure there’s human oversight, and confirm that outputs are reviewed for bias, hallucination, or misinterpretation. 
3. Update your third-party vendor files. Verify you have documented due diligence, contracts, and ongoing monitoring for any vendor touching client data, systems, or core operations. 
4. Review your employee disclosure pipeline. Ensure that gifts, political contributions, and outside business activities are submitted, reviewed, and archived with audit-ready trails. 
5. Test your policies against actual activity. Pull samples from trade reviews, email surveillance, or attestations. Do they match the written policies? Regulators will check. 

With Comply, you don’t just have policies, you have defendable documentation.