The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association released on Monday a new set of recommendations for the structure of U.S. equity markets.
The recommendations, put together by the SIFMA board's market structure task force, is meant to enhance “fairness, stability and transparency in U.S. equity markets,” a SIFMA news release said.
“Innovation, competition and regulation have made the equity markets more efficient and better for investors today than they ever have been. Spreads have tightened, transaction costs have decreased and execution speeds have increased,” said Curt Bradbury, chief operating officer of Stephens Inc., and chair of the task force, in the news release. “However, the evolution of our equity markets has shown that there are aspects that should be improved or corrected, so that markets operate in a manner that supports fairness and stability. We believe these recommendations will help shape the best path forward.”
Among the task force's recommendations are:
- The elimination or reduction of access fees charged by exchanges;
- The elimination of the connection requirement for broker-dealers to trading venues that do not add substantial liquidity to the market;
- That all market data users should have access to the data simultaneously; and
- Overall increased transparency to increase investor confidence.
SIFMA represents nearly 400 banks, broker-dealers and money managers.
The full set of recommendations is available on SIFMA's website.
