The Evolution of the OTC Market – Introducing OTCIDCromwell CoulsonOctober 14, 20240 Comment05.3k
In July 2025, Pink Current will become OTCID – a Basic Reporting Market for companies that meet a minimal current information standard and provide management certifications. Issuers that do not provide updated information will shift to the Pink Limited Market or to the Expert Market.
Over the past 25 years, OTC Markets Group (OTCQX: OTCM) has modernized the OTC market from the paper Pink Sheets® to regulated, real-time trading systems that facilitate trading in over 12,000 securities, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions each year. Our markets are global – trading in international companies represents more than 90% of our total dollar volume. The largest trading firms in the world ingest our real-time market data, financial information and compliance files.
First Principle: Open, Transparent and Connected markets that empower regulated broker-dealers to lawfully trade any security that has investor demand.
Organizing markets and connecting investors and brokers to company information has driven our evolution. On our OTCQX and OTCQB markets — qualified companies engage with investors by meeting a series of financial and disclosure standards. We built processes that allow companies to verify their credentials, provide ongoing disclosure and demonstrate their compliance with federal and state securities laws. These advancements empower public companies to create an information experience that, from an electronic perspective, looks and feels like every other equity market around the world. We provide investor-focused companies functionality to take ownership of their symbols and access a wider range of brokers and investors. Over time, the OTCQX and OTCQB markets have become widely accepted and understood by broker-dealers, regulators and investors. The financial ecosystem now relies on a rich stream of market data and company information to make trading and investment decisions in OTCQX and OTCQB traded securities.
Similarly, the lower segments of our market – the ‘Pink’ markets – provide important information for brokers and investors. Through our risk flags, we highlight a range of risks and specifically address anonymous promotion. While our market integrity initiatives have improved market quality, they also highlight the asymmetries and trading inefficiencies that result when there is no direct connection with the issuer.
Second Principle: Greater issuer engagement drives market quality, price efficiency and trading volumes by improving visibility, information availability, data integrity and compliance.
As we have increased the qualitative and quantitative standards of our OTCQX and OTCQB markets, it has become apparent that we need a home for companies that actively provide ongoing disclosure and demonstrate compliance with securities laws, but cannot qualify for OTCQX or OTCQB. That realization leads us to take the next step in organizing our markets.
In July 2025, Pink Current will become OTCID – a Basic Reporting Market for companies that meet a minimal current information standard and provide management certification, without the qualitative standards of our OTCQX and OTCQB markets.
Engaged, transparent and compliant companies are better for public markets.
Issuers that do not provide updated information, ongoing reporting and the required management certifications will see their securities transition to the Pink Limited Market or to the Expert Restricted Market, whichever is applicable. This will make it clear that the issuer has no ongoing relationship with OTC Markets Group, while still allowing broker-dealers to serve clients willing to trade these securities. The “Pink” branding is well suited to warn investors of the potential for market imperfections, issuer information asymmetries and other risks of these orphaned securities.
Looking Ahead
We will publish the requirements later this year to give companies ample time to provide the information required to meet the new market eligibility standards for the OTCID Market.
As markets become further electronic, current data from compliant companies will increasingly matter, for both corporate reputations and share valuations. The best companies will seek to stream the highest quality information to the broadest set of investors in the US and around the world.
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