Technical Notice

Revised FIX and CTCI Specifications for Reporting OTC Equity Trades to New OTC Reporting Facility (ORF) Platform

March 05, 2014

FINRA has updated the

FIX Specifications for the Over the Counter Trade Reporting Facility - Version 1.4

and

Computer to Computer Interface (CTCI) Specifications for the Over the Counter Trade Reporting Facility - Version 1.3

for reporting OTC equity trades to the new OTC Reporting Facility (ORF) platform. Reporting to the new platform will become effective on Monday June 2, 2014.

Revisions to the specifications versus previous versions are redlined in each specification. In addition, each document's revision history provides a summary of changes. The revised specifications:

redefine how service bureaus report via FIX protocol using the "On Behalf Of" methodology (FIX specification);
add missing Match Status fields to the ORCX message format (CTCI specification);
reposition the Contra Client Trade Identifier field in the inbound Accept and Decline message formats (CTCI specification); and
redefine the OATS Identifier/Compliance ID field as a conditionally required field (both CTCI and FIX specifications).

Important reminder: FINRA strongly urges firms and service bureaus to submit the FINRA Services Port Request Form to NASDAQOMX as soon as possible in order to start configuring connectivity to the new ORF platform (for both the test facility (NTF) and Production environments). Submission of the form is required in order to connect to the new platform as the current configurations will not be supported with the ORF migration.

For questions on FIX/CTCI connectivity, please contact Nasdaq Technical Support or call (212) 231-5180.

For questions regarding the ORF specifications or migration, please contact FINRA Product Management or call (866) 899-2107.