Amendments to Order Audit Trail System Rules

The NASD, through its wholly owned subsidiary, NASD Regulation, Inc., has filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend NASD Rules 6951, 6954 and 9610 and to add a new Rule 6958. The proposed rule change would: (1) provide that the time of order origination and receipt for an electronic order is the time the order is captured by a member's electronic order-routing or execution system, and for a manual order, is the time the order is received by the member's trading desk or trading department for execution or routing purposes; (2) exclude certain members from the definition of "Reporting Member" for those orders that meet specified conditions and are recorded and reported to the Order Audit Trail System ("OATS") by another member; (3) require any receiving reporting member, including electronic communications networks ("ECNs"), that receive, electronically or manually, routed orders, to capture and report a routed order identifier; and (4) permit NASD Regulation to grant exemptive relief from the OATS rules under certain circumstances.