... and a very good way to get immediate access to information about most peoples' financial wealth; and knowledge is, as they say, power. Here's the catch-phrase, FINRA wants to focus on "firms that are placing investors at high risk..." What does that mean? If a broker invests my retirement funds in growth stocks instead of income stocks, is he putting me at high risk because of the added risks of growth stocks? Will every investment other than investment-grade bonds be considered "high risk" because of the volatility of the stock markets?
Here's how this could play out: FINRA monitors for a while and then concludes that there is too much "high risk" in how retail accounts are traded overall, and then commands that all such accounts be placed only in government-approved investments; of course, mirabile dictu, the list of approved investments will include US debt.
And when that doesn't work out because FINRA manages to "find" that there's still too much "high risk," all retail investment portfolios will be presumed to be for retirement purposes and will be seized by the government and replaced with social security defined benefit arrangements.