The FINRA Board has approved a proposal to increase the Chairperson honorarium for hearings on the merits from $125 to $250 per day (in addition to the standard $300 per session honorarium). It would also for the first time provide for a Chairperson honorarium of $125 for prehearing conferences (in addition to the standard $300 one-session honorarium). We reported in SAA 2019-46 (Dec. 4) that FINRA’s Board of Governors would be meeting December 4-5, and that the Agenda stated “the Finance, Operations and Technology Committee will review proposed amendments to the Codes of Arbitration Procedures to increase certain arbitration fees...” As usual, the description was somewhat cryptic, so we said “the specific fees being increased and by what amount will have to await the post-meeting memo and press release.” "While the December 13th post-meeting memo from President and CEO Robert W. Cook and accompanying brief video and press release don’t refer to the subject, we did some sleuthing and can report ..." that the Board has authorized staff to do a rule filing with the SEC increasing certain Chairperson honoraria. Readers may recall that, in SAA 2019-39 (Oct. 16), we reported on the Practising Law Institute's Securities Arbitration 2019 program that took place in New York on September 10th. In describing FINRA-ODR Chief Richard Berry’s remarks, we said: “Look for a raise in the Chair honorarium, relative to chairing IPHCs and the merits hearing. The Chair's hearing sur-payment could double.” A FINRA spokesperson informs us that the Board indeed approved a proposal to increase the Chairperson honorarium for hearings on the merits from $125 to $250 per day (in addition to the standard $300 per session honorarium). It would also for the first time provide for a Chairperson honorarium of $125 for prehearing conferences (in addition to the standard $300 one-session honorarium).
(ed: *This is good news! $850 a day – $600 for two sessions plus $250 – is decent compensation, and the “extra” for IPHCs is fair. **FINRA has posted on its Website a nice FAQ on Chairperson honoraria. ***While the full 2020 schedule is not yet posted, the Website shows that the next meetings will take place March 11-12 and June 10-11. ****Our thanks to FINRA for answering our inquiry.)
