While Finra curbs its expenses and raises member fees to stabilize its finances, one thing it hasn’t cut yet: its lobbying budget.

Over the first six months of this year, Finra spent $550,000 on lobbying, according to a disclosure report filed with Congress on Friday. Finra’s layout for lobbying is running at about the same pace as last year, when it spent $1,090,000. But that was a 25% bump from 2010, when Finra shelled out $800,000.

Although lobbying remains a small part of Finra’s overall budget of nearly $1 billion, the expenditures are symbolic, given the regulator’s continuing losses, cost cuts and a series of new fee increases.

Source: InvestmentNews