U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, Procurement And Contracts Branch, Mail Stop O-20, 6432 General Green Way, Alexandria, Virginia 22312

70 -- ESTABLISH AND OPERATE THE INVESTMENT ADVISOR REGISTRATION SYSTEM SOL n/a POC Linda A. Sudhoff The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to award a sole source five-year contract with three one-year options, to NASD Regulation, Inc. (NASDR), to build and operate the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD). The IARD will be modeled on NASDR's Web Central Registration Depository (CRD), which broker-dealers use to make filings with the SEC, state securities authorities and NASDR. The IARD will permit advisers to make filings with the SEC and with state securities authorities through the Internet. In addition, the information advisers submit will be stored in a database; public investors will have access to this information by visiting a web site. The IARD will improve public access to information about advisers, ease regulatory burdens on advisers, and help the SEC better monitor advisers and administer the federal securities laws. The SEC is establishing the IARD pursuant to authority granted by Congress in the Investment Advisers Supervision Coordination Act (Coordination Act). The Coordination Act authorized the SEC to require SEC-registered advisers both to file required materials through an entity the SEC designates and to pay reasonable costs associated with these filings. Pursuant to this authority, the SEC intends to designate the IARD as the entity through which advisers must submit filings and pay the associated costs. The Coordination Act also required the SEC to provide the public with electronic access to information about advisers. In passing the Coordination Act, Congress encouraged the SEC to work with state securities authorities to establish a onestop, uniform filing system for materials submitted by SECregistered advisers and stateregistered advisers. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), as representative of the state securities authorities, has indicated that the states will accept filings through the IARD. SEC-registered advisers will be able to make a single electronic submission to the SEC and every state securities authority. State-registered advisers will be able to make a single electronic submission to every state securities authority. And all advisers will be able to make a single electronic submission to register their representatives with the states. Therefore, the IARD can function as a joint state and federal system only if operated by NASDR. Moreover, operation of the IARD by NASDR in conjunction with the CRD system achieves efficiencies for advisers that also are registered broker-dealers by minimizing duplicative filing requirements. Because the CRD system is proprietary to NASDR, and is independently maintained by NASDR for its own self-regulatory purposes, integration between the CRD and IARD systems cannot be achieved unless NASDR operates the IARD. NASDR is the only responsible source able to meet the above requirements, and no other supplies or services will satisfy the SEC's requirements. Accordingly, the SEC intends to solicit and negotiate only with NASDR for operation of the IARD. (See Note 22) Posted 07/12/00 (W-SN474031). (0194)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0376 20000714\70-0004.SOL)

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