FINRA settled actions for MSRB rule violations in 2026 so far down year-over-year

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's website reflects five settled disciplinary actions involving Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rule violations this year through Friday, half as many as were listed for the same period last year.

Four of the five FINRA disciplinary actions dated in 2026 through June 19 were clustered in January and February, according to the FINRA Disciplinary Actions Online database on finra.org. The fifth settled action was dated June 18.

By comparison, the 10 settled actions involving MSRB rule violations listed on FINRA's website during the period from Jan. 1, 2025 through June 19, 2025 were distributed more evenly, with at least one per month during that period.

For full-year 2025, the website reflects 17 FINRA settled actions relating to MSRB rule violations. Another action, which if counted would bring the calendar year 2025 tally to 18, involved municipal securitiesbut did not cite any MSRB rule violation.

While FINRA's website reflects fewer settled actions for MSRB rule violations this year through June 19 versus the same period last year, the five settled actions so far in 2026 still beat the tally recorded for Jan. 1 through June 19, 2022, a period that saw just one settled action pertaining to MSRB rule violations, FINRA's website shows.

"It's hard to know whether a decrease in enforcement is a statistical blip or early evidence of [a] meeker, milder FINRA in the current era," said Benjamin Edwards, associate dean for faculty research and development at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"There may be ? other data points to tie together," Edwards said. "Is FINRA retreating across the board in all enforcement areas or is this isolated to the bond market?"

It's also possible that FINRA has reduced headcount too sharply in pursuit of efficiency and doesn't have the capabilities it once had, he said.

"Ultimately, these are all great questions for Congress to ask FINRA as we can't seek this information from it through the Freedom of Information Act," Edwards said.

FINRA's website does show a drop in disciplinary actions overall. It indicates 146 total actions for the period from Jan. 1 through June 19 of this year, down from 238 total actions during the same period in 2025.

"FINRA's mission is to protect investors and safeguard market integrity," a FINRA spokesperson said. "Our enforcement program is robust, risk-based and responsive to evolving market conditions."

FINRA deploys its resources strategically in order "to address the most significant risks to investors and market participants," the spokesperson said.

"Enforcement numbers fluctuate annually due to case complexity, settlement timing and market conduct," the FINRA spokesperson said. "But our commitment does not. We hold firms and brokers accountable for misconduct, and we publish that information publicly to maintain transparency."

FINRA, a self-regulatory organization, isn't the only regulatory entity whose website suggests a slower pace of municipal securities-related actions recently. Municipal securities enforcement actions listed on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website for 2026 total just two so far, one announced in January and the other in February.

While the SEC's website listed four municipal securities enforcement actions in its tally for calendar year 2025, the list for calendar year 2024 was significantly longer with 15 entries.

Paul Atkins, who was sworn in as SEC chairman inApril 2025, has made clear his distaste for what is commonly referred to as "regulation by enforcement."

"This SEC is enforcement-averse," said John C. Coffee, Jr., the Adolf A. Berle professor of law at Columbia Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance.

"It tends to bring actions against lone individuals and not organizations," Coffee said. "Broker-dealers tend to be the special beneficiaries of this shift."

Less enforcement "does not mean that everyone will cheat," he said, adding that some firms have strong compliance staffs, "but certainly more will."

A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment.