FINRA Proposes Rule Amendments Relating to Quotation Requirements for Unlisted Equity Securities and Deletion of OTC Bulletin Board Service Rules (Fed. Reg.)

FINRA's proposed rule amendments relating to quotation requirements for unlisted equity securities, and the deletion of the rules related to the OTC bulletin board service, were published in the Federal Register.

The proposed rule change would, among other things, delete the FINRA Rule 6500 Series, which governs the operation of the OTC Bulletin Board ("OTCBB") service, and cease operation of the OTCBB. FINRA would continue to centralize last-sale transaction reporting through the FINRA OTC Reporting Facility ("ORF") and, therefore, continue to operate a system that collects and disseminates transaction information on, and provides the widespread dissemination of reliable and accurate last-sale information with respect to, OTC equity securities, including penny stocks.

Additionally, FINRA would impose additional requirements on quotation systems and broker-dealers that post quotes on OTC equity securities on an interdealer quotation system, including an ATS. FINRA is proposing minor amendments to the items of information required to be recorded and reported under the rule. The new rule would require the following items of quotation information: (i) the Market Participant Symbol ("MPID") of the quoting member; (ii) the inter-dealer quotation system; (iii) the date of the quotation; and (iv) the time quotation displayed, expressed in hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds, if the reporting member's system captures time in milliseconds.

Comments must be submitted by August 5, 2014.

See: 79 FR 41339.Related news: FINRA Proposes Amendments Relating to Quotation Requirements for Unlisted Equity Securities and OTC Bulletin Board Service (June 30, 2014).