SEC EMSAC Reviews Recommendations Concerning An Access Fee Pilot Program And Trading Venue Rules

The SEC Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee (the "Committee") reviewed recommendations and updates from the subcommittees on Regulation NMS, Trading Venues Regulation, market quality and customer issues.

Regulation NMS subcommittee: The Regulation NMS subcommittee recommended a framework and data generation for an access fee pilot program (the "Pilot") that would reduce the access fee cap (and corresponding liquidity rebates) that national securities exchanges are permitted to charge (or pay) users, and measure the commensurate impact on both market quality and marketplace behavior. Specifically, the Pilot would measure the impact of lower access fees on (i) liquidity provisioning (e.g., bid/ask spreads, market depth, order-routing behaviors, the ratio of hidden liquidity vs. displayed liquidity on the exchanges, quoting behavior, and the average time before getting a fill, and (ii) liquidity taking (e.g., the ratio of on vs. off exchange