National Quotation Bureau (NQB)

What Is the National Quotation Bureau (NQB)?

The National Quotation Bureau (NQB), presently known as the OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCM), was a distributer of price information for stocks and bonds traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Grasping the National Quotation Bureau (NQB)

The NQB was established in 1913 by financial book distributer Arthur F. Elliot and agent Roger Ward Babson. Prior to their cooperation, Elliot and Babson had both established separate companies participated in the gathering and dispersal of security prices. These two complementary services were then merged to form the NQB.

While it could be difficult to see the value in today, given the overflow of financial information we presently approach, the NQB offered a truly important support in the mid twentieth century by bundling scant data and making it accessible to dealers and investors. At that point, the NQB distributed their bond data on yellow sheets of paper, while their stock data was distributed on pink sheets of paper. This simple reality led to the term "pink sheets," which is currently used to allude to securities that are not listed or traded on traditional stock exchanges.

Regardless of its foundations in the pre-digital period, the NQB presented real-time electronic quotations in 1999, finishing its progress from strict printed pink sheets to the digital quotations we are know about today. In 2000, the NQB was renamed Pink Sheets LLC, which thusly became Pink OTC in 2008. Most as of late, it was renamed to OTC Markets Group in 2011.

OTC Markets Group (OTCM)

Today, the OTC Markets Group records over 10,000 securities and addresses almost $400 billion in annual trading volume. The company sorts out its postings into different categories to give lucidity to investors.

Toward one side of the range are securities offered on the OTCQX and OTCQB markets. These are relatively settled companies that are required to post financial information with the OTC Markets Group while additionally sticking to different standards connecting with the liquidity of shares, corporate governance, investor relations (IR) infrastructure, and other contemplations.

On the flip side of the range are securities offered on the "pink market," a legacy of the pink sheets from over a century prior. These are securities that are offered with no financial or reporting requirements. Now and again these securities will offer next to zero timely information to investors, raising the expected risk of fraud. In like manner, these types of securities are viewed as exceptionally high-risk investments.

Further information is likewise given inside every one of these categories, to assist with informing investors of the relative risk of the securities offered.

Features

• NQB was responsible for the now-well known "pink sheet" price quotations.
• The NQB offered an entirely important support in the mid twentieth century by bundling scant data and making it accessible to dealers and investors.
• The National Quotation Bureau (NQB) was established in 1913 by financial book distributer Arthur F. Elliot and lender Roger Ward Babson.
• The NQB is currently known as the OTC Markets Group (OTCM), which distributes price information for stocks and bonds traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.