For the first two weeks in August, the Central Registration Depository (CRD) will shut down to allow conversion to a new Internet-based system. The result: Brokers changing firms at that time could experience registration delays.
According to Derek Linden, senior vice president of the CRDs public disclosure office, brokers should avoid changing firms during the shutdown, although procedures will be put in place to allow for manual transfers for brokers with spotless records, he says. However, each state will first have to agree to the manual transfer program.
Late summer is typically not an active period for job changers. But some observers caution that given the NASDs spotty record on phasing in new technologies, a delay would not be surprising--and could cause problems.
If job movement is slow in August, it does tend to become much more active in the early fall, says Richard Cortese, deputy securities commissioner of the state of Vermont.
Barbara Sweeney, CRD director of operations, says transfers in the first two weeks of August usually amount to a couple hundred. She says the NASD does not expect the conversion to take longer than the two weeks.
Although registrations could be delayed--and new brokers wont be registered during the shutdown--the NASDR still wants termination reports on time. Sweeney says firms must file all U-5s by fax.
The CRD shutdown is unrelated to the NASDs January announcement that it will delay Internet access to the full disciplinary histories due to legal concerns. Brokers basic registration information has been available online for about a year.
