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FINRA Firm Gateway

Records and Information Request Reference Guide

September 30, 2013

The FINRA Firm Gateway Records Request for cycle examinations and Information Request for other

examinations (collectively “Records Requests”) have been updated in order to facilitate the electronic

request and fulfillment of electronic business documents. This reference guide will provide you with:

Benefits of the Records Request system

Important Notes about the Records Request system

How to navigate to the examination Records Request or Information Request system

How to determine if you have an outstanding request

How to fulfill an outstanding request

Benefits of the Records Request system

No more encryption keys! The Request Manager is a secure, encrypted channel for document request and

response that handles all of the encryption so that you don’t have to.

Centralized tracking. The Request Manager tracks all of the documents you have been asked for and allows

you to see the status of all requested documents on one screen. Put the spreadsheets aside, and let the

Request Manager track the status of your requests for you!

Organize your view. Sort and filter the list of requested items in a variety of ways so that you can respond to

requests in a way that works for your organization.

Upload large files. The Records Request system now accepts large documents (files that are 500MB or less).

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Important notes about the Records Request system

The WebIR or Information Request Entitlements are Required to Access Cycle

Examination Records Requests or Information Requests

In order to access the Records Request system for cycle examinations your user account

must hold the “WebIR” entitlement in Firm Gateway. Similarly, information requests

can only be accessed by those who hold that entitlement. If your user account does not

currently hold the correct entitlement, please contact your organization’s Super Account

Administrator (SAA).

Encryption of Files is Not Needed

The Records Requests system uses a secure and encrypted connection through the Firm

Gateway. This means that files are transmitted over an encrypted channel so files should

not themselves be encrypted.

Maximum File Size for Uploads is 500 MB

Files larger than 500 MB will not be transmitted by the system. If your file is larger than

500 MB, please try to reduce file size using “Zip” compression, or contact your exam

team directly for further assistance.

Internet Explorer 7 May Not Work Correctly

Due to browser compatibility issues, Internet Explorer 7 may not allow you to

successfully upload files. Please use the latest version of Firefox if you are experiencing

this problem.

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Navigate to the examination Records Request or Information Request system

First, navigate to the FINRA Firm Gateway (https:\\firms.finra.org), and enter your User ID and

Password as shown in the screen below.

Then click on the “Forms and Filings” tab at the top of the screen below.

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Next, double-click on the “On-site Exams (WebIR)” cabinet for cycle examinations or “Information

Request” cabinet for other information requests as shown in the screen below.

(For WebIR Only) Click on the “Records Request” link in the left hand navigation of the screen below.

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Determine if you have an outstanding request

You now see a list of matters that have a record request associated with them in the screen below.

For each matter there are 5 columns of information provided:

Case ID: A FINRA ID number associated with the examination

Description: The type of examination

Requested Date: The date the records request was made

Earliest Due Date: The soonest due date associated with the records that are being requested

Status:

o Open: Indicates that there are outstanding records that have not yet been fulfilled

o Received: Indicates that all requested documents have been fulfilled and received by FINRA

o Withdrawn: Indicates that the documents associated with this matter are no longer being

requested

Click on the Case ID link of a matter with an open status to see the requested documents that are

waiting to be fulfilled.

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You now see the “matter view” of requested records in the screen above. For each record there are

5 columns of information provided in the main part of this screen:

Item ID: A FINRA ID number associated with the record being requested

Requested Item: The type of record

Date Requested: The date the request for this record was made

Due Date: The date by which the request for this item must be fulfilled

Status:

o Open: Indicates that the request for this record has not yet been fulfilled

o Reopened: Indicates that the initial document(s) you provided do not fully satisfy the request

o Submitted: Indicates that the documents uploaded by you have been sent to FINRA for review

o Received: Indicates that the documents uploaded by you have been reviewed and received by

FINRA

o Withdrawn: Indicates that the request for this document is no longer required to be fulfilled

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On the right hand side of the screen above there is a navigation area that provides a list of links to the

records being requested. Records that have not yet been submitted, or that have since been re-

opened, have a small icon to the left of the link.

Clicking the link will take you to the record being requested, and open the row to view the record

details. You may also scroll to the row containing a record, and click anywhere in that row to open it

and view the item details.

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Fulfill an outstanding request

In the example above, the request is for Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Procedures with an

effective date of 08/31/2012.

On the left side of the record details area there is a note that the FINRA examiner has created to help

describe the document being requested.

On the right side of the document details area there is a shaded area titled “ATTACH NEW FILE TO

SUBMIT…” that you will use to upload the requested record. Click on the “Browse” button. (Some

web browsers will have different text inside this button).

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The screen above shows the upload experience provided by Internet Explorer 9.0 - which limits the

user to uploading one file at a time in a single upload session. In order to upload multiple files

simultaneously in a single session, use the most recent version of the Firefox web browser (found at

www.mozilla.org).

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The attached file(s) will now appear in the record details area as shown in the screen above. To

remove an uploaded record, click on the “red x circle” to the right of the file name.

Once all of the desired files have been uploaded, click on the “Submit” button, to send the files to

FINRA and fulfill the request for this record.

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You will be asked to confirm the submission action as shown in the screen above. Clicking “Submit”

again will complete the submission process.

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The request for this record now shows a status of “Submitted” as in the screen above.

To see the history of events of the request for a record, click on the “History” button as shown in the

screen above. A pop-up window will open, and any actions taken on this requested record will

appear with a time/date stamp of when the actions occurred.