SEC Chairman William Donaldson today called for the agency to issue final market structure regulations in a "timely manner" but declined to put a specific timeline on issuing the rules, proposed by the SEC in February.
In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Donaldson indicated that classifying individual stock quotes as automatic or manual - as opposed to the Regulation NMS proposal classifying markets as fast or slow - would enable an auction in that stock for "a brief period" but not entitle it to "trade-through" protection against being traded at an inferior price on another market.
He said some comments on Regulation NMS have suggested that freedom to bypass manual quotes could eliminate the need for the commission's proposed "opt-out" exception to the trade-through rule. "The concept of an exception for manual quotes appears promising," he said.
