NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Brokerage firms are expected to communicate with clients in ways that are clear and understandable.

Now the National Association of Securities Dealers says it needs to do the same when it talks to the industry.

NASD Vice Chairman Doug Shulman says the self-regulatory body needs to take "a serious dose of our own medicine" when it comes to its communications, and said there is a "major push internally to live up to this ethos" of clear communication.

Speaking at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association small firms conference earlier this month, Shulman said part of that effort would include a new "member portal" that would consolidate all electronic forms that a firm must submit to the NASD. Shulman said the portals would be rolled out later this year. An NASD spokeswoman could not provide more details, and Shulman wasn't available to elaborate.

Shulman mentioned that the effort would make it easier for registered representatives, branch managers and other business people - in other words, people who aren't in compliance departments - to understand NASD communications.

People in the brokerage industry have complained that it can be difficult to parse the meaning of complicated rules that aren't written in laymen's terms.

"I think the best approach to regulation...is trying to [ensure] the rules can be actually comprehended by the people who follow them," said Harvey Pitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and chief executive of consulting firm Kalorama Partners.

"It sounds easy, but it's hard. A lot of rules were written by lawyers, instead of by human beings," said Pitt, who is both a lawyer and a human being. "That produces a great deal of uncertainty."

Pitt noted that the NASD and New York Stock Exchange regulators have been making progress toward ensuring regulated firms understand the rules.

Karen O'Brien, a partner with consultancy Financial Industry Service Group, agreed, saying that the NASD has "gone out of its way" recently to provide guidance on how to implement rules, whether in the form of webcasts on hot regulatory topics or templates for anti-money-laundering procedures.

"I don't find the rules to be overly complicated - but I'm a lawyer," she said.

Firms' difficulty, she said, comes more from examiners' differing interpretations of rules than it does from a lack of understanding of what the rules mean.

Nancy Lininger, who runs consulting firm The Consortium, said she was skeptical of NASD efforts to make its communications more clear. She cited the NASD's recent proposal to change the definitions of branch offices, arguing that the regulator made the issue more complex by creating four different types of branch offices, instead of sticking with the more general category of Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction.

"Regulators are coming out and saying the right things, but right now I think it's more regulatory-speak than action," she said.

In the NASD's notice to members about the proposed rule, NTM 07-12, it explained the change as part of its rule harmonization project with New York Stock Exchange Regulation, a unit of NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYX). The two self-regulatory bodies are supposed to be consolidated in June.

In the notice, the NASD wrote that it believes the proposal will simplify branch office structures and clarify supervisory obligations for them by delineating more specific categories.

(Jaime Levy Pessin covers compliance and regulatory issues affecting financial advisors.)

-By Jaime Levy Pessin; Dow Jones Newswires