The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has halted proposals by the Nasdaq Stock Market, the Cincinnati Stock Exchange and the Pacific Exchange.to extend rebates of market data revenues to brokerage firms.

The SEC said the move prompted by concerns that lucrative rebates may entice traders to engage in transactions solely to receive market-data fees.. The commission said it believes that such trades may be distorting the actual volume of trading in these securities.

The regulator is also concerned that the structure and size of market data revenue rebates may be distorting the reporting of trades, and that these rebate programs may reduce the regulatory resources of the markets and reallocate the funding of regulation among participants.

The SEC said that the halt will allow it to consider the effects of market data revenues and the underlying issues presented by the manner in which market data is collected and distributed and the amount that vendors are charged for this information.

Under commission rules, if the markets re-file these proposals, it would publish notices in the Federal Register and the public would be invited to comment on them.