NASD Revises Bid for Tougher Rules on Listing Shares
NEW YORK -- The National Association of Securities Dealers revised proposals to stiffen requirements for listing a company's shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market.</br></br>The latest proposals, if approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, probably would reduce the number of securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market by 500, from the 1,600 listed there at year end, a spokesman for the NASD said.</br></br>The final proposal is generally similar to an interim proposal made last month by an executive committee, but contains some changes. Under the proposal adopted by the NASD board of governors and sent to the SEC, initial listing of a security on the Nasdaq Stock Market would require an issuer to have at least $4 million in assets, up from the current $2 million, and would require $2 million in capital and surplus, up from the current $1 million. The NASD proposal requires a minimum bid price of $3. There isn't any such dollar standard now.</br></br>The latest proposal would maintain the current requirement of 100,000 shares for a new issue, and an initial float would be required to have a market value of $1 million. Two brokerage firms would have to make a market in the stock; the earlier proposal would have required four brokerage firms and an initial float of 300,000 shares.</br></br>Maintaining a stock listing under the new proposal would require a company to have $2 million in assets, rather than the current $750,000; $1 million in capital and surplus, up from $375,000; a market value for float of $200,000; two market makers, rather than one; and a minimum bid price of $1.