The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Webull Financial LLC USD 4.2 million for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (AML), identity theft prevention and best execution programs. The settlement requires Webull to certify that it has remedied its AML and identity theft prevention deficiencies and retain an independent consultant to address its best execution program. Webull accepted FINRA’s findings without admitting or denying the charges. Between January 2020 and September 2023, Webull approved more than 120,000 customer accounts without forming a reasonable belief that it knew the customers’ true identities. Some accounts were approved despite customers submitting landscape photographs instead of identification or internal records indicating they were deceased. Monitoring failures included not identifying or investigating 473 unauthorized transfers totaling more than USD 1.5 million and not promptly investigating an account that generated nearly 13,000 alerts for potentially manipulative trading. From January 2020 to February 2023, Webull also lacked a reasonably designed identity theft prevention program, missing red flags associated with dozens of accounts for foreign nationals using the same IP address or device. Best execution deficiencies occurred at points from at least February 2020 to at least May 2025. Webull either did not review execution quality available at competing market centers or obtained the data without adequately assessing it. At certain points, reviews also excluded non-marketable orders, which represented 60% to 70% of order flow during some periods, and were not conducted by order type or individual security as required.

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