The securities regulator, explaining itself on the record.
FINRA Unscripted has FINRA leaders and staff explain their own work, from moving the trade reporting open to 4 a.m. to the cyber-enabled fraud and generative AI items in the 2026 Regulatory Oversight Report. Host Margarita Beal keeps the conversations orderly and measured, and they end on a formal legal disclaimer.
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FINRA Unscripted is the podcast FINRA uses to explain its own work, and that direct access is its main appeal. The speakers are FINRA leaders, staff and regional committee members describing systems, reports and research from inside the organization. Margarita Beal hosts. She opens with a short setup of the topic and in some episodes hands the discussion to a senior FINRA figure to lead. One thread is market infrastructure. 'Trading Around the Clock: Inside FINRA's Trade Reporting Enhancements' starts with the consolidated tape, the real-time stream of trades behind every scrolling ticker. It explains why FINRA moved trade reporting facility hours from an 8 a.m. open to 4 a.m., after exchanges had already moved their opening times earlier to capture overseas activity and overnight news. A guest describes FINRA's role as part of the plumbing of the markets, because for some trade data there is no other source. The same conversation looks ahead to 23-hour, five-day operations and to capturing fractional share trades that were previously invisible. 'How FINRA Is Streamlining Data Requests' looks inward. It describes exams, surveillance and enforcement being brought under a single leadership team, with analytics and investigations groups merged into shared units, and ties the change to a phrase used inside FINRA: 'one FINRA'. The other half is investor education. In 'Financial Security in 2026: Tips for Investors and How Firms Can Help', a guest cites survey findings that more than a third of people worry about losing money to a scam, up from three years earlier, and names fees as a blind spot. Another episode walks through the FINRA Investor Education Foundation's National Financial Capability Study, which is run every three years and draws on nearly 3,000 people with non-retirement investment accounts. Asked to rate the quality of finfluencer advice, a guest declines to generalize and points instead to FINRA's key topic page on social media. That small moment captures how cautious the show is. The most practical compliance material is in the 2026 Regulatory Oversight Report conversation, which covers cyber-enabled fraud, senior investor protection and generative AI, along with readiness work on Regulation SP amendments, customer protection rule changes and new clearing requirements for Treasury securities. 'Making Your Voice Heard Through FINRA Member Engagement' is led by FINRA Senior Vice President Katie Tachewoski with two regional committee members. One of them describes exam findings as open to constructive discussion, sometimes to the point of being removed, and says engagement with FINRA extends well beyond exams. FINRA Forward, the organization's commitment to continuous improvement and reducing burden, comes up in more than one cold open. The register is measured and institutional, loosened now and then by a dry aside about having to get up earlier. Episodes close with a legal disclaimer, a reminder that this is official guidance rather than casual talk. A newcomer curious about how trade data reaches a screen might start with the trade reporting episode. Someone in a compliance role will get more immediate use from the oversight report discussion.
Made for: Suits a listener who works in or near securities compliance and wants FINRA's priorities and rule changes explained by FINRA's own people. It also suits an investor curious about scam risk, fees and how trade data reaches a ticker.
What sets it apart: Rather than outside commentary on financial regulation, this is the regulator describing its own systems, reports and reorganization in its own words. That gives it an official, carefully hedged quality that commentary shows lack.
FINRA Unscripted is the voice of the nation’s largest non-government securities regulator. We bring together FINRA leaders to discuss existing and emerging regulatory topics that impact the broker-dealer industry. We share best practices for compliance officers, insights into the operations of a 3,500 person self-regulated organization and educational tools and information for investors. Every investor in America relies on one thing: fair financial markets. That is what FINRA works every day to ensure.
A giant blotter request gets a risk model, and your compliance brain gets the backstory.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, practical look at the market plumbing behind 4 a.m. trade reporting and longer-hours U.S. equities.
FINRA Unscripted turns the consolidated tape from background market plumbing into something easier to see and understand. Margarita Beal's conversation with Chris Stone, FINRA Vice President, Transparency Services, gives practical shape to FINRA's move to 4 a.m.
A practical, process-led look at FINRA's move toward more targeted, risk-based data requests.
FINRA Unscripted follows FINRA's push to make data requests more targeted without loosening its oversight of firms, suspicious trading, or investor protection.
A clear, data-led look at who is entering markets, what they know, and where online investing advice gets strange.
Investors in the United States uses a recurring national survey to show how retail investors are changing. Built around nearly 3,000 U.S. respondents with non-retirement investment accounts, and set against Investor Survey reports conducted every three years since 2015, the…
A grounded tour of FINRA's 2026 priorities, from low-price securities manipulation to Regulation SP readiness.
FINRA's 2026 Regulatory Oversight Report arrives earlier than usual, and this episode keeps the focus on how firms can put it to work. Margarita Beal speaks with Brian Smith, FINRA Senior Vice President and Acting Head of Strategic Intelligence, who presents the report as a…
A practical look at how FINRA presents member feedback as regulatory dialogue with real consequences.
FINRA Unscripted treats member engagement as part of how regulation gets made and adjusted in practice. Margarita Beal speaks with Katie Tachewoski, FINRA Senior Vice President, and regional committee members Margaret Duble and Peter Garcia, who describe ways firms can weigh in…
Specialists walking through software's tradeoffs, one system at a time.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
FINRA Unscripted's "Trading Around the Clock: Inside FINRA's Trade Reporting Enhancements" centers on trade reporting, market data, and overnight equity-market changes.
Jay Koutros says FINRA cut initial blotter requests by 50%, and Sam Drady says blue sheet requests fell from about 273,000 in 2022 to 80,000 in 2025.
On FINRA Unscripted, host Margarita Beale asks Geri Walsh how investors can build financial security in 2026.
Young investors are the sharpest story in FINRA Unscripted's discussion of the 2024 National Financial Capability Study: 43% of 18-to-34 investors trade options, 22% buy on margin, half hold crypto, and fewer than one in 10 answer at least eight of 11 knowledge questions correctly.
FINRA Unscripted's "Navigating the 2026 Regulatory Oversight Report" centers on FINRA's annual report, which the team says it released earlier than ever so member firms can use it for 2026 compliance planning.
FINRA Unscripted's 'Making Your Voice Heard Through FINRA Member Engagement' follows Katie Tachewoski, Margaret Duble, and Peter Garcia as they describe how FINRA turns member-firm feedback into rule and exam changes.
FINRA Unscripted examines how FINRA Forward uses shared intelligence, tabletop exercises, third-party risk monitoring, and the Financial Intelligence Fusion Center to address cyber and financial-crime threats.
FINRA CEO Robert Cook and Small Firm Advisory Committee Chair Preston Haxo discuss how the SFAC channels small-firm concerns into FINRA’s regulatory process.
FINRA's new chair discusses his career and regulatory priorities for broker-dealers.
This episode explores research on why people engage with financial scams and how to disrupt the cycle of fraud.
Blake Snyder discusses the growth and evolution of FINRA's Financial Intelligence Unit, including new threat intelligence products and how they share information with the industry.
FINRA's complex investigations and intelligence team discusses the current cybersecurity threat landscape and how firms should prepare for inevitable incidents.