(July 26 – 09:35) – The Securities and Exchange Commission is setting up an advisory committee to study the availability of market information.

The SEC wants to look at the public availability of market information in the equities and options markets. This new committee will have a broad mandate to explore theoretical and practical issues.

It is specifically expected to look at:

  • the value of transparency to the markets;
  • the ramifications of electronic quote generation and decimalization for market transparency;
  • the merits of providing consolidated market information to intermediaries and customers;
  • alternative models for disseminating and consolidating information from multiple markets;
  • how market information fees should be determined and;
  • appropriate governance structures for joint market information plans.

The committee will have 20 to 25 members, including investors, markets, broker-dealers, data vendors and other market participants. It will be chaired by Joel Seligman, Dean of the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
-IE Staff