When the NASDR implements the new Internet-based Central Registration Depository (CRD) system in mid-August, brokers could benefit in an important way: They might be able to get in their 2 cents.
If the NASD board approves of the procedure, the NASDR would not edit out brokers comments from its version of the Web CRD sent to the public. Currently, those comments are removed.
A brokers version of his or her story is added to the CRD database via disclosure reporting pages found on forms U-4 and U-5. Its the place where a rep can say, I did not do anything wrong, and the firm settled [a case] over my objections, says Derek Linden, senior vice president of the public disclosure program at the NASDR.
But, with the new electronic system, the NASDR will be able to draw information [including those pages] directly from the CRD database for its public disclosure program, Linden says.