Under FINRA Rule 6490, issuers, ADR depository banks and others that provide notice of company-related actions for non-exchange listed securities to FINRA must use a new electronic system to provide such notice to FINRA.  Paper copies no longer will be accepted.   New e-Company-Related Action Forms are available on 3/14, via www.finra.org/upc/forms.

    FINRA Contacts:   FINRA Operations, (866) 776-0800, Option 1; Kosha Dalal, in Office of General Counsel, (202) 728-6903.

    Background & Discussion.   FINRA Rule 6490, Processing of Company-Related Actions, went into effect on 9/27/10, and codifies the requirements in SEA Rule 10b-17 for issuers of a class of publicly traded OTC securities to provide timely notice to FINRA of certain corporate actions - e.g., dividend or other distributions of cash or securities, stock split or reverse split, or a rights or subscription offering.  Under Rule 10b-17, issuers must provide notice at least 10 days prior to the record date for the corporate action. Issuers must also notify FINRA of certain other corporate actions (e.g., the issuance or change of trading symbols, mergers or bankruptcy) no later than 10 days prior to the effective date of the company
action.

And, they must complete the required forms and pay the applicable fees within such time periods or they will be subject to late fees and delayed processing of documents to announce corporate actions.  This rule change provides for new steps for submitting company-related actions.  For further details, go to:   [FINRA RegNote 11-09, February]