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Insurance Buying Guide for Broker-Dealers and Market Infrastructure Providers
Map each entity’s role, customer assets, services, and systems. For a bank’s vendor review, send its service description and relevant contract terms. For a broker-dealer bond request, ask counsel to verify the exact entity’s applicable rule or contract and requested form; review commercial insurance separately.[3][2]
Which Insurance Should You Consider?
Consider professional errors and omissions (E&O), technology errors and omissions (E&O), crime, fidelity bonds, cyber liability, and directors and officers. Start with the coverages tied to your day-to-day operations, then use the situations and buying questions below to compare your options.
Professional errors and omissions (E&O)
The firm provides brokerage, clearing, exchange, advisory, operational, or other professional services to customers.
Ask which services and capacities appear in the insuring agreement and how financial-services, securities, contractual, and customer-asset exclusions apply to the specific allegation.[1]
Ask Before Buying
Which brokerage, clearing, carrying, exchange, or advisory services are named? How do financial-services, securities, customer-property, and contractual exclusions apply to a trade error or customer loss?
Technology errors and omissions (E&O)
You provide order handling, exchange connectivity, trading software, data feeds, or operational technology to another firm.
Treat platform failure, delayed processing, data error, and customer financial loss as separate quote examples. Ask for the specific technology-service definition and exclusions in the proposed form.[3]
Ask Before Buying
Which order-routing, exchange-connectivity, trading-software, and market-data services are named? What terms address delayed or failed processing and resulting customer financial loss?
Crime
Employees or systems can access customer property, change instructions, or move money or securities.
Crime is a distinct category; a general employee-theft example does not answer how customer property, account instructions, or a particular transfer is treated.[6]
Ask Before Buying
Whose property is insured, and which people, instructions, transfer methods, discovery terms, direct-loss conditions, and exclusions apply?
Fidelity bonds
An applicable SRO rule, regulator, clearing relationship, or signed counterparty agreement raises a fidelity-bond question.
The SEC’s 2013 summary discusses certain broker-dealer bond deductibles under self-regulatory organization (SRO) rules. Verify the current rule for the exact firm and ask what bond form, covered persons, and limits apply.[2]
Ask Before Buying
Which exact rule or contract clause applies, and what form, entity, covered persons, activity, limit, and exclusions does it specify?
Cyber liability
The firm holds customer or market information, operates a trading system, or relies on a material technology provider.
NAIC describes cyber policies as highly customized and says most commercial property and general-liability policies do not cover cyber risks. Ask how the actual proposal addresses your systems, vendors, incident costs, and interruption scenario.[5]
Ask Before Buying
Does the quote address trading and market systems, provider outages, customer-data incidents, and restoration or interruption costs? Which sublimits, waiting periods, and exclusions apply?
Directors and officers
Governance changes, outside directors, investors, or management decisions prompt a liability review.
A board, investor, or counterparty request is a prompt to compare insured entities and people, claim definitions, defense costs, and regulatory or financial-services exclusions.[1]
Ask Before Buying
Which entities and people are insured, what claims and defense costs are addressed, and which financial-services or regulatory exclusions apply?
Prepare for the Bank’s Vendor Review
Give the bank a short description of your service and the relevant contract terms for its vendor review. Ask which obligations it expects in the agreement, then give those terms to the broker and ask how the proposed policy treats them.[3]
Verify the Source of a Bond Request
Ask the requester for the exact rule or contract, entity, activity, covered people, bond form, and limit. Apply the request only to the scope named.[2]
Keep a bond question separate from a crime-policy comparison. Ask whether each proposal addresses the loss mechanism and property described in your operations, and request the applicable forms.[6]
Describe Each Service and System in the Application
Providers to Compare by Coverage
Professional errors and omissions (E&O)
Alliance Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
Not enough ratings
Amelia Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
2.0/ 10
Technology errors and omissions (E&O)
Alliance Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
Not enough ratings
Amelia Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
2.0/ 10Crime
Alliance Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
Not enough ratings
Amelia Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
2.0/ 10
Fidelity bonds
Cyber liability
Alliance Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
Not enough ratings
Amelia Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
2.0/ 10Directors and officers
Alliance Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
Not enough ratings
Amelia Risk
Spot Score
Review Score
2.0/ 10Common Questions
Do all broker-dealers need the same fidelity bond?
No. The SEC’s 2013 summary describes certain broker-dealer bond deductibles under SRO net-capital rules; it does not establish a current requirement for every firm.[2]
Read the Full AnswerDo customer-protection rules replace commercial insurance?
No. For broker-dealers, SEC financial-responsibility rules address safeguards for customer assets. Ask separately which commercial policy wording addresses the firm’s own claims.[1]
Read the Full AnswerSources and Further Reading
- SEC Adopts Amendments to Financial Responsibility Rules for Broker-Dealers — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC release 2013-140, customer-protection explanation; accessed 2026-09-28.
SEC explanation of broker-dealer safeguards and its historical 2013 fidelity-bond deductible summary; verify any present firm-specific rule.
- SEC Adopts Amendments to Financial Responsibility Rules for Broker-Dealers — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC release 2013-140, net-capital and fidelity-bond deductible summary; historical rule discussion; accessed 2026-09-28.
SEC explanation of broker-dealer safeguards and its historical 2013 fidelity-bond deductible summary; verify any present firm-specific rule.
- Agencies Issue Final Guidance on Third-Party Risk Management — Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve Board, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Joint release, bank third-party relationship lifecycle and fintech examples; accessed 2026-09-28.
Bank-side guidance for diligence and contracts with fintech and other service providers; not a vendor insurance mandate.
- Small Business Insurance — National Association of Insurance Commissioners. General liability, what it does not cover, and other business insurance types; accessed 2026-09-28.
Generic distinctions among CGL, E&O, crime, and cyber lines; not securities-policy wording.
- Insurance Topics | Cybersecurity — National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Cyber risks and cyber insurance; page background last updated May 9, 2024; accessed 2026-09-28.
General cyber customization context; not a market-infrastructure coverage opinion.
- Commercial Insurance Guide — California Department of Insurance. Form 700, revised June 14, 2024; commercial property and covered causes, crime, commercial general liability, time element, workers compensation, and rating sections; accessed 2026-09-28.
California commercial crime and liability examples; ask the insurer about the specific bond and payment scenarios.
This guide is general insurance buying education, not securities-law advice or a coverage opinion. Confirm current SRO requirements for the exact entity and review actual policy and bond forms.
Updated 2026-09-28. Editorial Policy
Get Help With Insurance Buying and Renewals.
Get help buying coverage and managing renewals, with less paperwork for your team. Start with a free consultation.