FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    2001-36



      Commission Issues Three-Month Exemption for NASDAQ Securities
              From Order Execution Quality Disclosure Rule

     Washington, DC, April 12, 2001 - The Securities and Exchange
Commission announced that it has issued a three-month exemption
for Nasdaq securities from Rule 11Ac1-5, the order execution
quality disclosure rule.  With the exemption, market centers
trading Nasdaq securities must begin collecting data for the Rule
in August 2001, and the first monthly reports that include Nasdaq
securities (for August) must be made available to the public by
the end of September 2001.

     The temporary exemption does not apply to exchange-listed
securities.  Consequently, the Rule's initial compliance date of
May 1, 2001 continues in effect for all market centers that trade
listed securities, regardless whether they trade on an exchange
or in the over-the-counter market.  The first monthly reports
that include listed securities (for May) must be made available
to the public by the end of June 2001.

     The exemption was requested by the Securities Industry
Association ("SIA") on behalf of its members.  The SIA
represented in its request that, despite its members' best
efforts to comply, there remained a substantial risk of non-
compliance with the Rule on the May 1 initial compliance date for
Nasdaq securities.  It stated that a three-month temporary
exemption would give Nasdaq market centers and their vendors a
quality assurance period in which to test their data and evaluate
their systems to ensure the production of complete and valid
statistics.

     The Commission issued the temporary exemption primarily to
help assure the integrity and accuracy of information made
available to the public during the initial months of reporting
under the Rule.  It is essential that all significant market
centers trading Nasdaq securities begin reporting on their order
executions at the same time and that the information disseminated
to the public be reliable and not materially misleading.  With
the temporary exemption of orders in Nasdaq securities until July
31, 2001, all market centers should be prepared to report
accurately on Nasdaq securities at that time.  The Commission's
Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations soon will
commence monitoring and inspection procedures to assess the
readiness of market centers to meet their responsibilities under
the Rule.

     The temporary exemption was granted in a letter to the
Securities Industry Association from the Division of Market
Regulation, acting pursuant to delegated authority from the
Commission.  The exemption letter will be made available on the
SEC's Internet site at:  http://www.sec.gov.

     For further information, contact:  Daniel M. Gray in the
Division of Market Regulation at 202-942-4164.