Over the past several years, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), the self-regulatory organization responsible for regulating every brokerage firm and broker doing business with the U.S. public, brought between 1,300 and 1,600 disciplinary actions each year. In 2014, the most recent year for which full-year statistics are available, it ordered $134 million in fines and $32.2 million in restitution. During the same period, it barred or suspended nearly 1,200 individuals, and expelled or suspended 23 firms. It also referred over 700 fraud cases to other federal or state agencies for potential prosecution. FINRA orders also often trigger automatic “statutory disqualifications” under Section 3(a)(39) of the Securities Exchange Act and Article III, Section 4 of FINRA’s By-Laws. Absent relief, these disqualifications prohibit persons from associating with a broker-dealer or prohibit firms from acting as broker-dealers.