(July 28 – 10:45 ET) – The Canadian Securities Administrators has released proposed rules to introduce Alternative Trading Systems to Canada’s capital markets.
The rules set out requirements for markets, including information
consolidation, market integration, access and system capacity requirements, reporting, record keeping requirements and common trading rules.
In response to comments on the rules it introduced last fall, the CSA said it is now proposing to separate the equity and fixed-income markets for purposes of market consolidation and market regulation. “These changes have been made to better reflect the historical differences between the fixed income market and the equity market,” it said.
The CSA is also distributing a request for proposals for the establishment of a data consolidator to receive and collect quotation and transaction information from each marketplace and to disseminate consolidated information to market data vendors, news services and other customers.
It is expected that final rules will be in place by December, allowing ATSs to begin trading in 2001.
“This initiative will benefit investors by introducing greater competition into the marketplace,” said Randee Pavalow, chair of the CSA Staff Committee on ATSs. “It will give investors a choice and improve price transparency, which should result in lower trading costs.”
-IE Staff