The Securities and Exchange Commission may make it faster for U.S. exchanges to implement new trading rules. According to SEC commissioner Annette Nazareth, the regulator needs to “carefully reconsider” the rule-filing process exchanges face when trying to introduce changes to their marketplaces.
The SEC may propose “changes that would provide for expedited treatment of proposed trading rule changes by the exchanges, so that these securities markets will be able to innovate more quickly,” Nazareth told attendees at this year’s annual Security Traders Association conference in Boca Raton, Fla.
The SEC, Nazareth added, is concerned that U.S. exchanges may be operating at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis ECNs and foreign exchanges under the current rule-filing process.
Exchanges must ask the SEC for permission to make any changes to their trading rules through a filing process. They have complained for years that the process is too slow and puts them at a disadvantage to ECNs.
