The FINRA or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s plan has gained approval for the compulsory, alternative trading system. The reporting will start from April. The approval comes despite US regulators making no amendments or shuffles as propounded by the industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accepted the plan, which requires ATSs to provide weekly reports about volume data on a per security basis to FINRA. It would then publish this data on its website alongside fortnight procrastination for liquid instruments. You have another four-week wait for less-liquid securities. ATSs need to adopt market identifiers alongside participants for every FINRA reporting.
It would cooperate with industry to finalize the methodology of reporting for companies. This will begin after 14 April. The MPID requisites will be channelized sometime before November. FINRA has not made any changes to the basic rules despite 10 industry players voicing concerns during a consultation procedure. CEO and president of sell-centric trade organization, Securities Traders association, Jim Toes, submitted a comment document to the SEC on the proposed plan. He affirmed his organization’s backing of the initiative, but upheld reservations surrounding key details. He said that in totality, they support more transparency in the market, which the plan promotes. But they have concerns about the need to assess the reporting process, which can complicate or jeopardize the nit-grid and propel potential leakage of issues for every non-liquid security.
Fee issue is another point here. Responding to industry commentary that accompanies the revised filing, FINRA said it work with companies to foster a standard reporting process. Under the proposed scheme, FINRA will offer free data on its website. It would charge for professional usage. 7 out 10 comment letters questioned the integrity and validity of this fee. FINRA responded by affirming that will address key issues related to the charged amount in another regulatory filing. Precisely, there is enormous industry support for bigger ATS transparency, which would particular benefit asset management.
It does not distort the complex order routing method that characterizes today’s market, but aids asset managers by entailing symbol-wise of data that can be channelized to “check broker-order outing practices.”
He added that FINRA should seek to expand the panorama of reporting venues beyond the gamut of ATSs as broker-driven pools were acting as a singular market and wholesaler-operated key international pools are not needed to report. However, they percolate execution from charges. Extension to off-exchange, non-displayed venues, which are unregistered ATSs, but which operate similarly like market participants would enhance transparency in dark trading. This would bolster the market in totality, he said.
