Rule 144A
Introduced in 2012, reduces the amount of time a qualified institutional buyer must hold privately placed securities from two years to six months for a company that reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or a year for a company that does not; the introduction of this rule has substantially enhanced liquidity in the market for private placement securities; the modification was introduced to acknowledge that sophisticated institutional buyers do not need the same protections an individual investor requires on the open market.