The Electronic Filing Depository Committee of NASAA (the "Committee") announced that it is seeking comments on a proposed model rule to require the electronic filing of Form D and other state securities registration filing materials. NASAA is developing an electronic filing system ("EFD") that will facilitate the electronic filing of Form D for Rule 506 offerings with its U.S. member juris dictions. The current scheduled deployment date for the EFD system is November 2014. While the EFD system initially will be limited to Form D filings for Regulation D, Rule 506 offerings, NASAA expects that

FINRA proposed a rule change to delete the FINRA Rule 6500 Series, which governs the operation of the OTC Bulletin Board ("OTCBB") service, and cease operation of the OTCBB. FINRA would continue to centralize last-sale transaction reporting through the FINRA OTC Reporting Facility ("ORF") and, therefore, continue to operate a system that collects and disseminates transaction information on, and provides the widespread dissemination of reliable and accurate last-sale information with respect to, OTC equity securities, including penny stocks. In place of operating the OTCBB, FINRA would instead

FINRA issued a regulatory notice regarding the SEC approval of amendments to the FINRA Customer and Industry Codes of Arbitration Procedure. The amendments provide that any document filed with FINRA that contains an individual's Social Security number, taxpayer identification number or financial account number must be redacted to include only the last four digits of these numbers. According to the regulatory notice, the amendments are effective on July 28, 2014 for all documents filed with FINRA on or after the effective date. The text of the amendments is provided in the regulatory notice

FINRA issued a regulatory notice regarding the SEC approval of new supplementary material to FINRA Rule 5210 ("Publication of Transactions and Quotations"). The new supplementary material addresses transactions in a security, resulting from the unintentional interaction of orders originating from the same firm, that involve no change to the beneficial ownership of the security. Effective August 25, 2014, firms must have policies and procedures in place that are "reasonably designed" to prevent, and to review trading activity for, a pattern or practice of self-trades resulting from orders

The SEC announced that two new judges and three new attorneys will join the Office of Administrative Law Judges. The additions will nearly double the size of the office. The recent hires include: James E. Grimes, Administrative Law Judge; Darien S. Capron, law clerk; William Weihao Miller, law clerk; and Jessica Neiterman, law clerk. Another Administrative Law Judge is expected to join the office in August. See: SEC Press Release.