A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) task force Wednesday called upon arbitrators to more fully disclose the rationale and facts behind their decisions in written, publicly available reports.

The task force contended the change would go far toward enhancing the transparency of awards and the public’s confidence in the fairness of the arbitration system.

“A common complaint among parties, particularly customers who are dissatisfied with the outcome of arbitration, is the absence of any explanation,” said the panel.

The authors of the study said the reports should contain the claims and defenses presented at the hearings between complaining investors and brokers in addition to the current requirement for the names of the parties, a summary of the issues and damages.

The task force said arbitrators should explain their decisions in writing unless any of the parties in a hearing object.

In another recommendation, the task force said a special arbitration panel should be set up to decide requests from brokers to delete specific customer complaints from BrokerCheck.

The task force said the best way to improve the arbitration process is to increase arbitrator compensation; the current low, below-market pay rate is hurting the recruitment.

Specifically, it recommended raising pay from $300 per arbitration session to $500 with hikes every two years in line with the Consumer Price Index.

In its report, the task force said it could not agree on whether to recommend a prohibition against forced arbitration clauses in contracts between brokers and investors.

In total the task force made 51 recommendations, which it said would cost Finra significant amounts of money and time.

The recommendations now go to Finra’s National Arbitration and Mediation Committee and ultimately to the Finra Board of Governors.