In a speech yesterday given at a New York conference, U.S. SEC Chair Mary Jo White set out a number of initiatives being undertaken by the SEC to address five broad areas of concern, namely market instability, high frequency trading, fragmentation, broker conflicts and the quality of markets for smaller companies.
To that end, she stated that she has directed SEC staff to prepare a number of rules and recommendations to address the issues outlined above. This includes, among other things: (i) developing an anti-disruptive trading rule; (ii) clarifying the status of unregistered active proprietary traders; (iii) eliminating an exception from FINRA membership requirements for dealers that trade in off-exchange venues; (iv) improving firms' risk management of trading algorithms; (v) expanding the information about ATS operations submitted to the SEC and making the information available to the public; (vi) enhancing order routing disclosure; and (vii) eliminating potential sources of conflicts between brokers and customers.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
