BATS Trading took one giant leap for equity market structure reform today and filed a petition with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for more rulemaking designed to make the market better.
BATS, in its filing, issued a “call to action” to drive regulatory reform urging participants to engage in a constructive dialogue to improve the already healthy U.S. equity market for all investors.
The petition was filed on January 21st and published to the SEC’s website January 29th.
In an open letter to the industry in early January, BATS chief executive Joe Ratterman and president Chris Concannon announced the company’s proposal to drive regulatory reform that would primarily:
1. Reduce potentially excessive incentives to provide liquidity in the most active securities.
2. Empower institutional and retail investors by providing them more – and better quality – information regarding the manner in which their orders are handled.
“We certainly have strong thoughts on how to improve the highly efficient, fair and transparent U.S. equity market and the opinions of all participants are critical if there is to be true regulatory reform,” Ratterman said. “We urge everyone in the industry to engage in a formal, constructive dialogue with the SEC in order to drive incremental improvements for all investors.”
Under the BATS proposal, the company estimates that market-wide savings may exceed $850 million annually for those accessing exchange liquidity in the 200 most actively traded U.S. stocks.
Industry participants who support any, all or none of the proposals from BATS are asked to file their comments with the SEC by sending a letter or email that references BATS Petition 4-680.
