OATS Report - February 1, 2001

February 1, 2001

The first quarter 2001 software release for OATS contains two enhancements that will significantly affect NASD member firms, service bureaus, and clearing firms.

The first enhancement is to empower member firms with the ability to control who submits order data on their behalf. OATS will give member firms the ability to set up reporting relationships with their Order Sending Organizations (OSOs). If the relationship has not been built in OATS, any FORE files sent to the system from an unauthorized OSO will be rejected at the FORE file level. This change will require that member firms set up the relationships between themselves and their respective OSOs on OATS prior to the April 2 implementation date. Currently, a plan is being discussed on how to best implement this enhancement. Once the implementation plan is finalized, NASD Regulation staff will communicate this information to the membership.

The second enhancement affecting member firms, service bureaus, and clearing firms is the expansion of the Order Received Date and the Replaced Order Received Date to include time to the second. The addition of time to the Order Received Date and Replaced Order Received Date will be mandatory, and any Order Reports that contain an Order Received Date without a time will be rejected.

Details for the enhancements will be provided in the revised OATS Technical Specifications document that will be published on the NASD Regulation Web Site in the coming weeks. Please check the OATS Web pages located on www.nasdr.com periodically for the new version of the OATS Technical Specifications.

If you have any questions regarding these issues or on OATS in general, please contact Business and Technology Support Services at (800) 321-NASD.