By john DAntona Jr.
Mark your calendars, the Securities and Exchange Commission is hosting a roundtable on market structure.
The SEC announced that its Division of Trading and Markets will host a two-day roundtable on October 25 and 26 on market data and market access. The roundtable agenda is below.
Agenda
Day One – Assessing Current Market Data Products, Market Access Services, and Their Associated Fees
10:30 a.m. Opening Statements
10:45 a.m. Panel One – Overview of Current Landscape for Market Data Products and Market Access Services
Panel One will discuss the evolution in recent years of market data products and market access services, both those provided by the central securities information processors (SIPs) and those provided directly by national securities exchanges (Exchanges). Has the evolution of SIP and Exchange products and services affected the ability of market participants to obtain the data and access needed to trade effectively in todays market structure?
12:15 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. Staff Presentation
1:15 p.m. Panel Two – SIP Core Data Products and Exchange Top-Of-Book Data Products
Panel Two will focus on the extent to which SIP data products meet the needs of all or most market participants in todays market structure. What are the differences, such as latencies and data content, between the SIP data products and Exchange proprietary products? What works well and does anything need to be improved with respect to SIP data products?
2:45 p.m. Break
3:00 p.m. Panel Three – Exchange Depth-Of-Book Data Products and Market Access Services
Panel Three will focus on those Exchange proprietary data products and access services that offer the most content and the lowest latencies.
4:30 p.m. End of Day One
Day Two – Assessing Potential Steps to Improve Market Data Products and Market Access Services
9:00 a.m. Panel Four – Elements of the Core Data Infrastructure
Panel Four will focus on potential steps to modernize the infrastructure for providing the market data products (Core Data) and market access services (Core Access) that market participants need to trade effectively in todays market structure (collectively, the Core Data Infrastructure). Should Exchanges disseminate Core Data directly from their respective data centers as a means to minimize geographic latencies? If data vendors and market participants could obtain direct access to Core Data, would the current SIP model with a central plan processor be improved if there were multiple data aggregators?
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. Panel Five – Governance of Core Data Infrastructure
Panel Five will focus on potential steps to improve the governance of the Core Data Infrastructure. Issues for discussion may include confidentiality policies, use of executive sessions, conflicts of interest, and voting structure.
12:15 p.m. Lunch
1:15 p.m. Panel Six – Funding of Core Data Infrastructure
Panel Six will focus on potential steps to assure that a modernized Core Data Infrastructure is appropriately funded and that the associated fees and revenues are fair, reasonable, and not unreasonably discriminatory.
2:45 p.m. Break
3:00 p.m. Panel Seven – Public Transparency
Panel Seven will conclude the Roundtable by focusing on the information available to the public about data products and access services, including their associated fees, revenues, costs, and respective latencies.
4:30 p.m. End of Program
In examining the aforementioned agenda and meeting, Ed Tilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cboe Global Markets said he was happy to see these topics being examined.
We applaud the SEC for hosting a roundtable on industry market data and we look forward to participating in this conversation. Cboe has consistently supported transparency and broad industry participation in these critical discussions involving market structure and market data. This is a positive step in a long process as the industry continues to evaluate ways to enhance our markets, Tilly said.
He added that a holistic review of equity market structure, including these discussions about Securities Information Processor (SIP) governance and resilience, is warranted for the investors and traders we serve each day.
The strength of American capital markets in serving companies and investors is admired around the world, and we embrace discussions that will help us reinforce and grow these markets for generations to come, he concluded.
The roundtable will be held at the SECs headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C., and will be open to the public and webcast live on the Commissions website.
