The number of brokers seeking to clear their public record through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration forum plummeted 79% over the past year since the regulator tightened requirements.

From the day the rule became effective on October 16, 2023, to December 1, 2024, brokers have filed 143 stand-alone requests for expungement of customer complaints and other disclosures compared to 681 in the same period one year earlier, according to data provided by a Finra spokesperson.

The downturn comes as Finra, the industry’s self-regulator, sought to curb what investor advocates called excessive win-rates of more than 90% by brokers clearing client claims. But those groups say it may be too early to declare victory.

To be sure, the figures prior to October 2023 are inflated because brokers filed dozens of claims in the weeks prior to the new rules, which included a mandate that brokers obtain a unanimous ruling from a panel of three arbitrators rather than one and a bar on clearing complaints older than three years.

Some investor advocates and plaintiff lawyers pointed to another concern: brokers are going to less transparent arbitration services with fewer strictures after lawyers who specialized in expungement said Finra had become a “last resort.”

In some cases, brokers are filing for expungements directly in court or through outside arbitration forums such as JAMS and the American Arbitration Association, said Adam Gana, a Chicago-based lawyer and president of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association.

That allows brokers to avoid the new mandates and additional costs associated with paying for more arbitrators. It also allows them to bypass having to give state regulators the opportunity to intervene and oppose expungement and potentially avoid having to notify the customer who made the complaint. Awards and explanations for decisions are also kept private unlike Finra’s forum, which publishes decisions in a searchable online database.

While few of the cases filed since October 2023 have been decided, a broker in March lost his expungement request after state regulators intervened and the panel found it did not meet Finra’s new standards.

Finra rules do not require brokers to obtain an expungement through its arbitration forum, but it does maintain a final check on those who use courts or a third-party service. Brokers must ultimately obtain a court order affirming the award, and the broker must name Finra as a defendant in court to give the regulator an opportunity to contest the claim.

It is not clear if Finra has opposed any such requests or if any filed outside of Finra have reached that stage. A Finra spokesperson declined to comment on the number of times it has been named in court filings by brokers who had not gone first to its arbitration forum.

Finra said previously it will notify state regulators to give them a chance to respond as well in cases where brokers have filed for confirmation without first going to its own forum.

A spokesperson for NASAA, the association for state securities regulators, did not return a request for comment.