SEC publishes concept release respecting structure of equity markets
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in January that it was seeking public comment on issues respecting the current equity market structure. In publishing the concept release, the SEC specifically cited the dramatic change in the secondary market for equities in recent years and the trend towards a market structure with primarily automated trading. Thus, the SEC intends to assess "whether market structure rules have kept pace with, among other things, changes in trading technology and practices". The release seeks specific comment on issues such as market quality metrics, the fairness of market structure, high frequency trading, co-location services and dark liquidity. The SEC will use the comments received to help determine whether additional regulatory measures are needed to improve the current equity market structure. Further, the SEC also proposed for public comment a new market structure initiative that is intended to strengthen the risk management control of broker-dealers that provide market access.
