WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday unanimously proposed to scrap longstanding Wall Street regulations requiring the execution of stock trades at the best available price, saying the rules drove up costs and complexity and were no longer necessary.
• The proposal, if adopted, would mark another step in the Trump administration’s plans to remake the structure of securities markets.
• “I’ve opposed the trade-through rule since its inception and have elaborated on my concerns from this very stage,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said at a public meeting of the five-member bipartisan commission, which currently has only three Republican members and no Democrats.
• Atkins had voted against the proposal while serving as a commissioner in 2005.
• Also known as the “order protection rule,” the regulation was first adopted in 2005 to prohibit so-called trade-throughs, which occur when a trade happens at a bid or offering price that is worse than what is quoted on another venue.
• At Thursday’s meeting, officials said technological advances and changes in US market structure meant the rule was now doing more harm than good, driving up costs for compliance and connectivity and making markets more complex while delivering little benefit.
• Other regulations requiring price transparency from broker-dealers and trading venues remain in place, officials said.
• Better Markets, which pushes for tougher oversight of Wall Street, said in a statement that rescinding the rule outright would bring “worse prices for people saving for retirement and more profits for securities firms and high-frequency traders.”
• The proposal is subject to a 60-day public comment period prior to any decision on finalization.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
