The reason isn’t that these companies have failed to meet certain quality standards or are delinquent in their reporting to the SEC . Quite the opposite – the OTCQB is a new market (launched in April 2010) for OTC-traded companies that are registered and current in their reporting obligations to the SEC, so a move from the BB to the QB by no means signals delinquency or lower reporting quality .

The root cause, as with almost any aspect of the financial world, comes down to money. All companies quoted on the OTCBB must maintain at least one registered market maker (see FAQ #14) to remain on the OTCBB. The issuer can’t voluntarily withdraw from the OTCBB, but when the last market maker withdraws from the stock, it is removed from the OTCBB after 4 days pursuant to Rule 15c2-11.

When this happens, the stock is usually quoted solely on the OTC Link system, rather than the typical dual BB/OTC Link quotation. The stock will trade on the OTCQB, the middle tier of the OTC marketplace reserved for fully reporting issuers that are quoted on one or both quotation platforms (Bulletin Board and OTC Link). The new OTC tier system classifies all OTC companies, whether quoted on the BB, OTC Link or both, into one of three tiers (OTCQX, OTCQB, or OTC Pink) based on the amount and quality of information they provide to investors. This tier system separates SEC-compliant issuers in the OTCQB tier from the speculative marketplace known as the “Pink Sheets” (now called “OTC Pink”), which is the bottom of the three tiers.

One possible reason for the mass Bulletin Board delistings in the past week is that a large broker-dealer acting as the sole market maker for a number of stocks completely withdrew from the OTCBB, leaving hundreds of stocks, like this one, with no market maker and sending them to the OTC Markets four days later . This is difficult to prove, but a similar situation happened last year when major broker-dealer Knight Equity Markets stopped quoting securities on the phone-based, fee-laden OTCBB and switched primarily to the no-fee, electronic OTC Link.