The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has adopted amendments to clarify the operation of the Regulation NMS Plan to Address Extraordinary Volatility following a trading pause or regulatory halt. FINRA rules prohibit the execution of transactions in national market system (NMS) securities during a trading pause.

FINRA has amended its rules to clarify that, following a trading pause or regulatory halt, a member firm may resume off-exchange trading in an NMS security if trading has commenced on the primary listing exchange (or on another exchange following a 10-minute pause) and either (1) the member firm has received the price bands from the processor; or (2) the member firm has calculated an upper price band and lower price band consistent with the methodology set forth in FINRA rules, and the member firm verifies that the transaction is within the ranges provided for in FINRA rules.

FINRA Notice 16-26 is available here.