With this in mind, Trua has launched a cloud-based platform to deliver continuous, automated verification of broker registrations, licenses, exam credentials and disciplinary history. TruaBroker is being billed as a smarter approach to manage risk, reduce costs and stay focused on growing business.
Driven by proprietary algorithms and AI, along with blockchain technology featuring an audit trail that's legally defensible, it's designed to automate the entire process for real-time alerts, clear insights and full visibility without needing a heavy lift from IT.
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The automated solution transforms compliance from "a static, point-in-time obligation into a living continuum of trust," explains Trua CEO and founder Raj Ananthanpillai.
Regulatory expectations on the rise
In a market where trust is paramount and
The platform confirms active registration status with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and other regulators — ensuring that every license is current and compliant. Unregistered brokers are not just a risk but also "a courtroom nightmare," the company contends. It also integrates with FINRA BrokerCheck, the SEC's investment adviser public disclosure database and National Futures Association's (NFA) background affiliation status information center database.
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Since automated alerts are delivered across these databases to red flag noncompliance, civil actions and arbitration outcomes, an ability to instantly uncover disciplinary actions enables teams to avoid costly missteps, prevent fraudulent activities and build trust with every new hire.
Aligning screening practices with NFA, SEC and state-level rules is designed to help tighten know-your-customer/anti-money laundering controls, reduce audit risk and strengthen overall regulatory readiness.
Expediting the onboarding process
Another point worth noting is that instant verification of exams like Series 7 and Series 63 can
Compliance can be a cost center for organizations that need to deploy multiple databases to fully vet the financial professionals they work with, Ananthanpillai explains. "Some of these databases don't even update it quickly based on certain events," he says. "So, you have to match all of the attributes that they have, along with the license information, and then start doing the search and then the correlation, which is what we do."
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Ananthanpillai likens TruaBroker to an alarm system. "You turn it on before you go to bed and sleep well knowing if there is an intruder it will trigger and be one step ahead," he observes, noting how organizations can take preemptive action if any wrongdoing is uncovered.
He recalls a front-page investigative report published years ago in The Wall Street Journal that found 10,000 of 600,000 brokers had criminal records in their background that no one knew about. At the time, FINRA was located just down the road from his corporate office in Rockville, Md., where a meeting was set up to discuss automating the process to verify professional backgrounds. However, the agency resisted the idea over cost considerations, preferring instead to hire several summer interns to do screenings.
Not much has changed since then. Despite advances in technology, Ananthanpillai laments that compliance work in the broker-dealer and RIA space still largely relies on manual lookups, static spreadsheets and fragmented data sources. "This manual overhead not only slows operations but also increases exposure to reputational and regulatory risk," he adds.
