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Re: gappmaster post# 4164

Tuesday, 03/01/2011 10:30:58 PM

Tuesday, March 01, 2011 10:30:58 PM

Post# of 32894
I just noticed that too. Looks like hundreds of stocks got dropped from the OTCBB through no fault of their own and moved to the OTCQB.

http://blog.redchip.com/index.php/stocks/otcbb-delistings-and-rule-15c2-11-what-happened


On February 15, 2011, below the radar of the financial community and with no publicity, they started dropping. First it was 48, then 4 on the following two days. Then on February 22, the floodgates opened and 569 companies were delisted from the OTC Bulletin Board and moved to the relatively new OTCQB, officially part of the OTC Market Group’s OTC Link quotation system. The reason given in each case? “Failure to comply with Rule 15c2-11.” What has changed so drastically in the past week, and why has it resulted in the sudden delisting of 622 OTCBB companies?

The reason isn’t that these companies have failed to meet certain quality standards or are delinquent in their reporting to the SEC. Quite the opposite – the OTCQB is a new market (launched in April 2010) for OTC-traded companies that are registered and current in their reporting obligations to the SEC, so a move from the BB to the QB by no means signals delinquency or lower reporting quality.

The root cause, as with almost any aspect of the financial world, comes down to money. All companies quoted on the OTCBB must maintain at least one registered market maker (see FAQ #14) to remain on the OTCBB. The issuer can’t voluntarily withdraw from the OTCBB, but when the last market maker withdraws from the stock, it is removed from the OTCBB after 4 days pursuant to Rule 15c2-11.