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The FINRA Corporate Financing Department has created a Same Day Clearance Option that allows issuers and member firms to obtain FINRA clearance on the day filings are made for shelf registration statement filings that are not exempt from FINRA review. The Same Day Clearance Option became available through FINRA’s web-based filing system, called the COBRADesk system, on March 1, 2010 and will enable issuers and member firms to obtain clearance for these filings upon electronic confirmation that certain conditions have been met, without the need for FINRA personnel to review and approve the filings. For shelf filings that are not exempt from FINRA review, this new option should streamline and reduce the timing uncertainty sometimes associated with the review process.

The Same Day Clearance Option will be available for issuers filing base prospectuses and for member firms filing either base prospectuses or prospectus supplements, or both, for shelf registrations that are not exempt from filing. If the party making the filing elects the option, confirms electronically that all of the conditions of the option are met and makes the filing before 4 PM on a business day, the COBRADesk system will automatically generate a no-objections letter for the filing without review by a FINRA examiner. FINRA reserves the right to review the filing, and whether the conditions were in fact met, after the fact.

Filers are not required to use the Same Day Clearance Option and may elect to have the filing reviewed instead. Filers may still request expedited review in appropriate cases. The Same Day Clearance option is not available for non-shelf filings, such as IPO registration statements.