Limited Representative - Private Securities Offerings

The NASD, through its wholly owned subsidiary, NASD Regulation, Inc., has filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to implement Section 203 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 ("GLBA"). Specifically, Section 203 adds a new subsection (j) to Section 15A of the Act, which requires that the NASD, as a registered securities association, create a limited registration category for any associated person of a member whose investment banking and securities business is limited solely to effecting sales of private securities offerings. Section 203 also states that any bank employee who during the six-month period prior to the enactment of GLBA engaged in effecting such sales shall be deemed qualified in such limited registration category without having to complete an examination. To implement Section 203, which becomes effective on May 12, 2001, the NASD is amending Rule 1032 to create a limited registration category for private securities offerings. NASD Regulation also is making clerical changes to Rule 1032, essentially replacing the word "described" for the word "prescribed."