The Wall Street Journal (Updated October 3, 2002 11:00 pm) -- The National Association of Securities Dealers adopted rules that will make it harder for stockbrokers to erase disciplinary incidents from the public record.

The new guidelines state that only information that is wrong or defamatory can be removed from the national databank that logs investor complaints. Also, if a complaint fails to state a specific claim, it can be removed.

"We needed to make sure there is strong, fair...