SEC Prescribes Higher FINRA Gift Limit

On February 12, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved an amendment to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 3220. Rule 3220 prescribes the maximum value of gifts that a FINRA member or associated person may make to any one person that are given “in relation to the business of the employer of the recipient” of the gift. Payments of anything of value, including gratuities, can be gifts for this purpose. Also, FINRA members must maintain a separate record of all known payments or gratuities.

Prior to the SEC’s approval of the amended rule, a gift could not exceed $100 per person per year. That threshold was established in 1992, which, adjusting for inflation, would be considerably more than $200 today. FINRA acknowledged that the outdated rule was an “ongoing pain point in everyday business” and proposed an adjusted regulatory dosage that />FINRA explained would take account of both past inflation and some amount of future inflation.

FINRA first proposed modifications to Rule 3220 on May 29, 2025, as part of a broader effort to modernize its rules. As finally approved by the SEC, the modified rule:

• Increases the gift limit from $100 to $300 per person per year.
• Provides FINRA authority to grant exemptive relief from Rule 3220.
• Codifies existing guidance regarding gifts incidental to business entertainment, valuation of gifts, aggregation of gifts, personal gifts, bereavement gifts, de minimis gifts and promotional or commemorative items, donations due to federally declared major disasters, and supervision and record-keeping of gifts.
• Makes conforming changes to the gift limits in FINRA’s noncash compensation rule.

The SEC expressed that FINRA’s updated regulatory treatment is reasonably designed to prevent fraud, promote just and equitable principles of trade, and protect investors. No longer must FINRA member firms and their associated persons follow the rules on their expired prescription bottles. The new prescription has no specific expiration date, but it should be good for at least a few years.

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