CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino reported earlier this afternoon that Duncan Niederauer, the recently appointed president and co-COO of the NYSE, will be apologizing to several specialists who were hurt by comments he’d made several years ago.

Niederauer, a top executive at Goldman Sachs and a proponent of electronic trading, said he wanted to limit or possibly eliminate the specialist system, where humans rather than computers make markets in stock because he didn’t “want five guys named Vinny executing my trades.”

A good enough number of people were apparently offended by the comment (which was reported on CNBC several weeks ago) to warrant a petition to Thain asking him to cancel the Niederauer appointment; it currently has as many as 150 names.

Niederauer's decision to apologize comes after an uproar among floor traders that the remark was offensive and possibly derogatory to Italian Americans. In recent weeks, floor traders have been heard shouting the words “call me Vinny” in protest of the remark.

Niederauer is rumored to be gearing up to make the change to ‘jabroni’ in the coming weeks.

CNBC's Gasparino: Niederauer To Apologize For "Vinny" Remark [CNBC]