SEC Grants Accelerated Approval to FINRA Rule Amendment Regarding Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities

On June 15, 2012, the SEC granted accelerated approval to an amendment to FINRA rule 6433 related to the minimum quotation size for OTC equity securities.  Rule 6433 applies to all market makers.  Rule 6433 sets forth the specific minimum quotation size requirements in tiers that are based on the price of the OTC equity security being quoted by the market maker.  In addition, the rule change will require market makers to publish customer limit orders.

The new rule amends and lowers the current 9 tier quotation size requirements to 6 tiers as follows:

  • $175.00 per share and above, the minimum quotation size would be 1 share;
  • $1.00 through $174.99 per share, the minimum quotation size would be 100 shares;
  • $0.51 through $0.9999 per share, the minimum quotation size would be 1,000 shares;
  • $0.20 through $0.5099 per share, the minimum quotation size would be 2,500 shares;
  • $0.10 through $0.1999 per share, the minimum quotation size would be 5,000 shares;
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