WorldSpace Inc fka WRSPQ

[RMAN_]

OTC Eligibility Rule

To alleviate this issue the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the OTCBB Eligibility Rule. The Eligibility Rule dictated that all non-reporting OTC companies already trading on the OTC market would have to report their financial information to the SEC, banking, or insurance regulators in order to meet eligibility requirements. A phase in period was set for all trading companies starting in alphabetical order from the beginning of July 1999 to June 2000. As the phase in date for a company passed if the company had still not reported its financials the ticker symbol would receive an extra ‘e’ added. A symbol would now carry an extra ‘e’ at the end letting investors know that the company had not reported its financials. The non-reporting company was then given 30 days to report. If the company did not report in that 30 day grace period the stock was delisted from the OTC and moved to the pink sheets.

The benefit of this rule is that as of now any stock traded on the OTC market has publicly available financials. The financials can be accessed through Edgar or through other financial databases. The benefit of this is that in the past a company might have been able to work in the shadows without limited oversight. The company could put out ambiguous press releases with little concern over the accuracy of the announcements. Now that every OTC company needs to file financials with the SEC they are forced to hire accountants and lawyers who are familiar with all the requirements. The management of the public company will go out of its way to make sure that its financial statements are accurate and precise. The SEC would not hesitate to suspend trading in a stock that it suspected of fraud. A suspension would be the smallest of their problems since the SEC would not let any a company off the hook if it participated in fraud.

Read more: Understanding the OTC Market: What are OTCBB Stocks? | Qwoter http://www.qwoter.com/college/Trading-Basics/otc_market.html#ixzz1wt41KStc
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