Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Rules

SIFMA provides comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on proposed rule changes from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, SR-FINRA-2009-054 (FINRA Release No. 34-60515): Proposed rule change to adopt FINRA Rules 6434 (Minimum Price Increment for OTC Equity Securities); 6437 (Prohibition from Locking or Crossing Quotations in OTC Equity Securities); 6450 (Restrictions on Access Fees); and 6460 (Display of Customer Limit Orders). SIFMA filed a report in February 2006 on a similar proposal and expressed concerns. SIFMA believes that the structure of the over-the-counter (OTC) equity market and National Market System (NMS) marketplace are substantially different ad particular care should be taken in rulemaking efforts to recognize these differences and ensure that new regulation does not harm the OTC equity market. Overall firms believe FINRA new proposals are not necessary and therefore should be discarded or at least clarified. Included by reference, Knight Capital Group, Inc.’s arguments regarding rule change.