The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Monday it is putting $3.5 million into a cable TV, print and web public awareness advertising efforts for BrokerCheck throughout June.
In rolling out the campaign, Finra Chairman and CEO Richard Ketchum said he is concerned people make more effort choosing a restaurant than an investment professional. “That has to change,” said the agency’s leader.
Much of the money is coming from increased fines the regulator obtained last year, according to Finra spokesperson George Smaragdis.
The financial media is being heavily targeted in the effort with ads being placed on the broadcast and web outlets of Bloomberg, FoxNews, Reuters, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune.
But Finra is casting its net to reach a broader public with spots on guy-centric ESPN and The History Channel while seeking to promote BrokerCheck to women on HGTV.
Search engine ads will be placed on Google, Bing/Yahoo and YouTube.
BrokerCheck has received criticism for being incomplete and for Finra allegedly making it too easy for brokers to delete complaints.
Consumer Federation of America Director of Investor Protection Barbara Roper called the ad campaign a positive step.
She added a protection better than BrokerCheck would be to provide the information the site does to investors directly in the form of a plain English pre-engagement disclosure document so that investors don’t have to go searching for such critically important information.”
Finra Kicking Off $3.5 Million BrokerCheck Ad Campaign
June 1, 2015
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