By James Langton
(October 30 – 10:40 ET) – The Wall Street Letter is reporting that a group of large financial firms has formed an association aimed at creating a global 24-hour trading environment.
According to the newsletter, people from firms such as Merrill Lynch, Knight Securities, Salomon Smith Barney, State Street Global Advisors, Bank of New York, Bear Stearns, Bloomberg Tradebook and Invesco Private Capital have formed the Global Equities Market Association.
GEMA is being formed with a view to overhauling the structure and regulation of global equities markets to make global trading more convenient and to make 24-hour trading a reality. “The rules and restrictions set up by local governments make it difficult for investors to exchange stock,” said GEMA’s co-chair Steven Bookbinder of Bloomberg Tradebook. “We will use position papers and our influence of having several trillion dollars under the management of our representative firms to open up more avenues in foreign markets for investors.”
Bookbinder points to Poland and Venezuela as markets where it is looking to effect some change. Canadian investors and brokers will no doubt be interested in improving access between Canadian and U.S. investors and brokers. Just this year Canadian brokers received some relief from registration requirements to deal with snowbirds retirement accounts in certain U.S. states.