Are Your Firm's Options Communications Programs Actually Rule 2220 Compliant?

FINRA Rule 2220, the Options Communications Rule, sets the standards for how broker-dealers communicate about options with customers and prospects. It runs parallel to Rule 2210, using the same three-tier classification of retail, institutional, and correspondence, but adds a layer of requirements specific to options: Registered Options Principal approval, pre-filing with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department, and content standards that require explicit risk disclosure and prohibition on promissory language.

The rule covers more than formal advertising. Social media posts, influencer content, chatbot interactions, and any off-channel message that discusses options strategies is within scope. FINRA has imposed six- and seven-figure fines on firms that treated these channels as outside the rule’s reach.

At a Glance

What Regulators Expect

In a Rule 2220 exam, FINRA examiners will ask:

The Three Tiers of Options Communications

Rule 2220 applies the same classification framework as Rule 2210, but with options-specific supervision requirements at each level.

Retail Communications are any written communications distributed or made available to more than 25 retail investors within 30 days. Every retail options communication must be approved in advance by a Registered Options Principal before it goes out. Website copy, social posts, email campaigns, pitch decks, and paid influencer content all qualify if they discuss options and reach a retail audience.

Correspondence covers written communications to 25 or fewer retail investors within 30 days. Correspondence does not require ROP pre-approval, but it remains subject to the supervision and review requirements of Rules 3110(b) and 3110.06 through .09. A compliance officer must still review it; the pre-approval burden is lower.

Institutional Communications are communications to institutional investors only: banks, registered investment companies, entities with assets exceeding $50 million, and similar counterparties. These require a written review procedure appropriate to the firm’s business and size, but the specific suitability warnings required for retail communications do not apply.

FINRA Pre-Filing Requirements

Retail communications on standardized options used before the customer has received the current options disclosure document must be filed with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department at least 10 calendar days before first use.

FINRA can also require earlier or broader pre-filing if it determines a firm has departed from the standards of Rule 2220. When that happens, FINRA notifies the firm in writing and specifies which communications must be filed and for how long, up to one year. The requirement takes effect 21 calendar days after service of the notice, during which the firm may request a hearing.

All options communications are subject to FINRA’s routine spot-check procedure. On written request, firms must promptly submit the communications requested.

Content Standards

Rule 2220 sets specific requirements for what options communications must and must not contain.

What is prohibited:

• Any untrue statement or omission of a material fact
• Promises of specific results, exaggerated or unwarranted claims, or forecasts of future events that are unwarranted or not clearly labeled as forecasts
• Cautionary statements that are illegible, misleading, or inconsistent with the content
• Statements suggesting that a secondary market for options is certain to be available
• Failure to reflect the risks of options transactions and the complexities of certain strategies
• Failure to warn that options are not suitable for all investors (applies to retail communications; institutional communications are exempt from this requirement)
• Failure to offer supporting documentation for any claims, comparisons, recommendations, or statistics

Risk balance requirement: Any statement about the potential opportunities or advantages of options must be balanced by a corresponding risk statement at the same level of specificity. Broad generalities on the risk side are not sufficient if the opportunity side is specific.

Projections: Projected performance figures — including annualized rates of return — are permitted only if: the options disclosure document has been delivered, no certainty is implied, all relevant costs are disclosed, all material assumptions are identified, and any annualized returns are based on a period of at least 60 days.

Historical performance: Past performance records and statistics may be used only if: the options disclosure document has been delivered, the data covers a specific and fully isolated universe of at least 12 months, all relevant costs and commissions are included, and a Registered Options Principal has initialed the report.

AI Chatbots and Social Media Are Covered

In May 2024, FINRA updated its Rule 2210 interpretive guidance to clarify that AI-generated chatbot communications are covered under Rules 2210, 2220, and 3110. If a chatbot discusses options strategies with retail investors, the firm is responsible for the content, including approval, recordkeeping, and content standards, regardless of whether the communication was generated by a person or a model.

The same applies to influencer marketing. If your firm pays or compensates anyone with a social media following to promote options products or strategies, that content is a retail communication under Rule 2220. The firm is responsible for pre-approval by a Registered Options Principal and for filing with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department where required.

Enforcement Highlights

Moomoo Financial — $750,000 fine (November 2024). From January 2020, Moomoo paid social media influencers to promote the firm. The influencers’ posts included options communications that were not approved by a Registered Options Principal before use and were not filed with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department. The firm also failed to retain records of the communications, the approval dates, or the name of any approving principal. FINRA cited violations of Rules 2210, 2220, 3110, and 4511.

Webull Financial — $1.6 million fine (May 2025). From January 2019 through December 2022, Webull failed to supervise and retain social media communications from influencers — some of which included statements that were not fair and balanced or were promissory or exaggerated — and failed to establish supervisory procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance. FINRA cited violations of Rules 2210, 2220, 3110, and 4511.

Both cases share a common thread: the firms treated influencer and social media channels as outside their options communications supervision program. FINRA’s enforcement record makes clear they are not.

What a Compliant Options Communications Program Should Include

A designated Registered Options Principal. The ROP must be named in your written supervisory procedures, not just on paper. Examiners will ask who the ROP is and verify that they reviewed and approved retail options communications before use.

Pre-approval workflow for all retail options communications. Every website update, social post, email campaign, or influencer brief that touches options requires ROP sign-off before it goes live. The approval must be documented — not inferred from a Slack thread.

A FINRA pre-filing process. If your firm distributes retail communications on standardized options before delivering the options disclosure document, those materials must be submitted to FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department at least 10 calendar days in advance. Build the filing step into your content calendar, not as an afterthought.

Complete approval records. For every retail options communication, you need: the communication itself, the preparer’s name, the approving ROP’s name, the date of approval, and the source of any recommendations or statistics. These must be retained in the form and for the time period required by SEA Rule 17a-4.

Written supervisory procedures that name every active channel. If your WSPs list email and brochures but your team is distributing options content via Instagram, LinkedIn, or WhatsApp, your procedures are out of date. Examiners match your channel inventory against your WSPs. See what compliant WSP language looks like.

Records you control. If your retention strategy depends on a social platform or messaging app keeping the content available, you don’t have a retention strategy. Firms must retain copies in a medium they control.

Common Mistakes

Treating influencer content as the influencer’s responsibility. Your firm compensated them. FINRA treats their options content as your retail communication. The approval and recordkeeping obligations sit with you.

Assuming the options disclosure document delivery covers the pre-filing requirement. Delivering the ODD to a customer satisfies certain content restrictions, but it does not replace the obligation to pre-file retail communications with FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department where required.

Using broad risk disclosures against specific opportunity claims. If your communication lists five specific advantages of a strategy, the risk disclosure must match that specificity. “Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors” as a boilerplate footer is not sufficient if the body of the communication makes detailed performance claims.

No records for correspondence. Correspondence to 25 or fewer retail investors doesn’t require ROP pre-approval, but it still must be retained and is subject to Rule 3110 supervision. Firms that treat correspondence as unregulated often have the same records gap examiners find in their retail communications review.

How Comma Addresses Rule 2220 Recordkeeping

Rule 2220 requires more than captured messages — it requires the complete approval record: who prepared the communication, which Registered Options Principal approved it, and when. Comma captures the communication and preserves the metadata your ROP needs to satisfy Rule 2220(b)(4).

iMessage: Captured directly from the employee’s iPhone, independently of iCloud backup timing or device settings. Complete message thread with sender, recipient, and timestamp metadata retained in WORM storage.

WhatsApp: Captured via open-source connector at the point of send. Group messages, broadcast lists, and individual correspondence all captured, including the participant list and timestamps your ROP needs for an approval record.

Signal: Captured before auto-delete timers can run. Messages are written to archive before ephemerality features can execute, preserving communications your supervisory program would otherwise lose.

Audit trail. Comma’s platform maintains timestamps, sender and recipient identifiers, and message metadata alongside captured content — the complete record your Registered Options Principal needs to satisfy Rule 2220(b)(4) retention requirements.

Retention and retrieval. All captured communications are written to WORM storage on receipt and held for the period required by SEA Rule 17a-4 and FINRA Rule 4511. Searchable and producible directly from the Comma platform, with no platform dependency.