Omega ATS Stays Open, Agrees to OSC Recommendations

Traders Magazine Online News, November 28, 2017

John D'Antona Jr.

Omega ATS, an alternative trading venue in Canada, lives to trade another day.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) moved two weeks ago to suspend Omega’s trading registration until a hearing could be held to determine if the ATS had conducted itself in an improper fashion. During the hearings, held November 17, 20 and 21, an OSC hearing panel rejected an earlier application from its own commission staff to temporarily suspend the registration of Toronto-based Omega Securities. At issue was the ATS’ market data reporting.

After the announcement of the OSC’s initial move to suspend Omega’s registration, volumes at the ATS were reported to have fallen by 90%.

“Staff’s requests for a temporary order that the registration of OSI be suspended and that trading in any securities by OSI cease until the conclusion of the hearing on the merits or such other time as ordered by the Commission are denied,” the OSC wrote in its opinion.

Following the OSC hearings, a three-day hearing, the panel ruled that a suspension was not warranted, but it did impose several conditions on Omega's registration that relate to its provision of market data.

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