[ by Howard Haykin ]

FINRA has filed for immediate effectiveness to repeal changes made in 2011,  which among other things renamed FINRA’s inter-dealer quotation system. 

18 Months Ago, ...  on 4/25/11, FINRA submitted rule changes to the SEC that would:

• replace FINRA Rulebook references - "OTC Bulletin Board” and “OTCBB” - with new references:  - i.e.,  “Non-NMS Quotation Service” and “NNQS,” respectively.

By renaming its inter-dealer quotation system, FINRA sought to remove certain impediments to the completion of a transaction whereby FINRA would divest itself of the OTCBB trademark, related domain name, and all informational content from the www.OTCBB.com website that was not otherwise required to be retained by FINRA for regulatory purposes (“OTCBB assets”).

However, FINRA no longer is proceeding with the sale of the OTCBB assets, as described in FINRA Rule Filing 11-019, so that the name changes are unnecessary.   Thus, FINRA is deleting the pending name changes that had not taken effect. 

The FINRA Rule 6500 Series will continue to govern the operation of the OTCBB and the functionality of the OTCBB is not proposed to be changed in this filing.  FINRA plans to implement the repeal of the 2011 changes on 12/3/12.

For further details, go to:  [FINRA Rule Filing 12-48, 11/2/12].