OATS Report - April 15, 2002

April 15, 2002

The April 8, 2002 Order Audit Trail System (OATS) Release includes a change in how the Account Type Code field will be handled by OATS. The Account Type Code field is now a required field for any electronically received orders reported by Non-ECN member firms. Those electronically received orders not containing a valid Account Type Code will be rejected with the rejection description of "Missing or Invalid Account Type Code." Non-ECN member firms will be subject to this change. ECNs have the option of not populating the field or of using the applicable code.

Specifically, any New Order Reports, Order Route Reports, Cancel/Replace Reports, or Order/Execution Reports for electronic orders submitted by a non-ECN member firm must contain an Account Type Code value of R (Retail), W (Wholesale), P (Proprietary), E (Employee), or C (Combined).

Any New Order Reports, Order Route Reports, Cancel/Replace Reports, or Order/Execution Reports for electronic orders submitted by an ECN may contain an Account Type Code value of R (Retail), W (Wholesale), P (Proprietary), E (Employee), or C (Combined) or it may be left blank as the Account Type Code is not required for ECNs.

The permitted values and descriptions are as follows:

(R) Retail: An order received for the account of an investor, including institutional orders.
(W) Wholesale: An order received from another broker/dealer.
(P) Proprietary: An order placed by a firm for a proprietary account.
(E) Employee: An order received for the account of an employee or associated person of the reporting member firm.
(C) Combined: An order placed for more than one type of account.

If you have any questions regarding this topic or on OATS in general please contact the OATS Business Help Desk at (800) 321-NASD.