The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday will vote on whether to propose some of the biggest changes to the structure of the American equity markets in nearly two decades, aimed at boosting competition, transparency and fairness.
The potential changes include new rules that would require marketable retail stock orders to be sent to auctions before they are executed, a new standard for brokers to show they get the best possible executions for client orders, and lower trading increments and access fees on exchanges, the SEC said.
The changes, if adopted, would represent the biggest shakeup to stock market rules since the SEC introduced Regulation National Market System in 2005, which was aimed at modernizing and enhancing an increasingly fragmented and largely electronic marketplace.
The regulator will also consider whether to propose requiring brokers to provide more information on the quality of their customer trades, and requiring more firms to file the order execution reports.
If the SEC votes to propose the changes, they will be put up for public comment before the regulator moves forward.
Reuters