FINRA Arbitration Analysis

How settlement estimates work: FINRA assigns case numbers sequentially within each calendar year in the format YY-NNNNN. Because public award documents are the only publicly available record of FINRA arbitration outcomes, cases that ended in settlement, withdrawal, or dismissal before an award was issued leave no public record. These missing cases appear as gaps between the lowest and highest case numbers observed each year. The difference between the estimated total filed and the number of public awards represents cases that never reached a final award — most of which settled.

Important caveats: This is an approximation. Not all gaps are settlements — some case numbers may have been voided, transferred, or reassigned. FINRA also does not publish a complete filing count, so the true number of cases filed each year is not publicly known. Data shown covers 2010–2023; recent years are excluded because our award database may be incomplete, which would artificially inflate the settlement rate.

What it means: Approximately 70% of FINRA arbitration cases filed never reach a public award. Most resolve privately through settlement — often without any public disclosure of the terms.

* Outcome breakdown assumes that settled/withdrawn cases follow the same customer/industry mix as filed cases overall. "Award — Other" includes industry, member, and corporate claimant cases that reached an award. Because FINRA does not publish filing counts by dispute type, the exact proportion of customer vs. non-customer settlements is unknown.