On November 5, 2019, the SEC approved changes to FINRA Rule 5130 (Restrictions on the Purchase
and Sale of Initial Equity Public Offerings) and Rule 5131 (New Issue Allocations and
Distributions). FINRA announced that the changes would become
effective on January 1, 2020, in Regulatory Notice 19-37.
FINRA Rules 5130 and 5131 protect the integrity of public
offerings for "new issue" securities (i.e.
initial public offerings of equity securities) by, among other
things, ensuring that member firms make bona fide public
offerings at the offering price, do not withhold securities for
their benefit or the benefit of industry insiders, including
employees and industry professionals, or award them to persons who
can give them future business (a practice known as
"spinning").