FINRA has scheduled the date it will begin expanding the OATS recording and reporting obligations of member firms to orders in all NMS stocks, in addition to OTC equity securities.  Effective 7/11/11, expansion will be implemented over 3 phases.  Currently, the obligations under FINRA Rules 7410 through 7470 apply only to orders for equity securities listed on Nasdaq and OTC.

FINRA also has updated the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications for the above reporting changes. 

    Background and Discussion.   OATS Rules obligate firms to record in electronic form and report to FINRA on a daily basis certain information about orders originated, received, transmitted, modified, canceled or executed by firms relating to OTC equity securities and equity securities listed and traded on Nasdaq.  Beginning 7/11/11, orders for all NMS stocks - as that term is defined in Rule 600(b)(47)
of Reg. NMS - will be covered by the OATS Rules. 

The change effectively extends OATS recording and reporting to NMS stocks listed on markets other than Nasdaq - e.g., NYSE, NYSE Amex, NYSE Arca.  Expansion will be accomplished over a 2-week period, on 7/11, 7/18, and 7/25.  For further details, go to:   [FINRA RegNote 11-3, January].

A new edition of the OATS Reporting Technical Specifications (OATS Technical Specifications) details the reporting obligations of firms subject to the OATS Rules in light of these amendments.  To access the 1/11/11 version, go to:   [FINRA's OATS Tech Specs].

In anticipation of the increased volume of OATS data, FINRA will extend the reporting deadline to submit OATS data to 8:00 a.m. (from 5:00 a.m.) ET, starting 7/11/11.  Also effective 7/11, FINRA will make the following changes, and others, to the OATS reporting system:

• create standard values for Receiving and Originating Department ID fields;
• add a new Order Origination Code;
• eliminate the Received By Desk ID;
• align the OATS Account Type Code with the NYSE Account Type Indicators;
• create a new Exchange Participant ID field on all Route Reports identifying routes to a national securities exchange;
• generally require each reporting MPID to use unique Routed Order IDs and Branch/Sequence Numbers each day; and
• reduce the allowable clock drift from 3 seconds to 1 second, and require timestamps to be reported to OATS in milliseconds if the firm captures the time in milliseconds.