News & Updates

The FINRA API team is preparing to launch the next version of the FINRA API Platform and the API Developer Center (developer.finra.org). You will begin to see changes to the Developer Center the week of 10/4/2021 and the changes will continue to roll out throughout Q4 2021, culminating with the launch of the FINRA API Console in early January 2022.

The changes we are rolling out in Q4 are designed to:

• set the foundation for additional API types to be launched in 2022

• simplify the API packaging and fee structure

• streamline API credential provisioning and management.

API Products

When FINRA first launched the API Developer Center in early 2020, we offered a Query API product (often referred to as the Data Out API). The Query API allows third-party systems to access FINRA data via a standard query interface that provides sophisticated filtering capabilities and other features arcoss a variety of categories including:

• Equity
• FINRA Content
• Fixed Income
• Registration
• Firm

Within each of these categories (or dataset groups) a variety of datasets are available that contain specific data fields.

Heading into 2022, FINRA anticipates launching additional API products including:

• A Submission API that allows external systems to submit data and filings to FINRA 
• A Notification API that allows external systems to subscribe to data change notifications

Therefore the overall structure of the API Developer Center will evolve to support multiple API product types.

Simplified API Packaging and Fee Structure

The FINRA API Platform offers four (4) API Credential Types:

1. Test Credential - provides access to test/mock data and allows for exploring the API platform in a test environment.
2. Public Credential - provides access to public data and does not incur a fee.
3. Organization-Type Credential - provides access to public data as well as organization type-specific data and incurs a fee. The organization types will initially include:
   • Firm - FINRA member firm.
   • Organization - other industry organizations such as service providers, RegTech providers, Insurance Companies, etc.
4. Individual - a person acting on their own behalf whether or not they are associated with a Firm or Organization.

The type of organization the API user is associated with determines what type of API Credentials can be created:

• Firm users will be able to create Test, Public, and Firm credentials
• Organization users will be able to create Test, Public, and Organization credentials
• Individual users will initially be able to create Test and Public credentials.

NOTES:

1. Firms that currently have production API credentials tied to a WebEFT subscription can continue to utilize the Query API to access the firm's registration data without any changes or impact.
2. Firms will be required to obtain a Firm credential ONLY when they require access to API features available as part of the Firm Credential type.(e.g. Individual Pre-Registration Search, FINRA Rulebook, etc.).
3. Firms will not be required to maintain an active WebEFT subscription to create a FIRM API Credential
4. Firms utilizing WebEFT only will not be impacted, and will not be required to obtain a FIRM API Credential unless they require access to API features available as part of the Firm Credential type.

The API Console

FINRA will launch an API Console app that provides fully automated, self-service API credential provisioning and management to API users in early January 2022. Firm and Organization API users will be able to request access to the API Console by contacting the Super Account Adminstrationr (SAA) or Account Adminstrator (AA) of their organization. Individuals will be able to create an API Console account via the API Developer Center.

The API Console will eliminate the manual process of obtaining production access to the API Platform and will provide API users with complete control of their API Credentials,  invoicing and billing (via the FINRA EBill platform), usage tracking, and more.

New Query API Datasets

As part of the launch of the Firm and Organization API Credential Types (see above), we have launched two advanced Query API datasets:

• The Individual Pre-Registration Search API: provides access to all individuals, regardless of association with a firm, for the purposes of pre-registration lookups and processing.
• The FINRA Rulebook: provides access to a machine-readable version of the  historical and current text of FINRA's rules and regulations.

These new datasets are ONLY available as part of the Firm or Organization API Credential Type. Please contact the API Team at [email protected] to provision a new Firm or Organization API Credential. More information can be found here.

Stay Tuned

Please keep an eye on the API Developer Center over the coming weeks to stay up to date on the evolution of the FINRA API Platform or contact the API team at [email protected] to discuss your specific questions or use cases in detail.
 

For those organizations that are interested in getting started with the new API features prior to the launch of the API Console, please contact the API team at [email protected] and we can help you onboard to the platform manually during the soft launch period.