WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended the disclosures required for order executions in stocks listed on a national securities exchange. Director of Securities Policy Benjamin Schiffrin released the following statement:
“In today’s securities markets retail investors are not getting the best available prices for their orders to buy and sell stock. A big reason for this is a lack of transparency regarding the way orders today are routed and executed. The SEC’s rules will improve the public’s ability to compare and evaluate execution quality among different trading venues and broker-dealers, which will ultimately improve execution quality and help promote fair competition.
“The current reporting requirements regarding execution quality have simply become outdated since they were adopted over two decades ago. They do not capture enough information about how orders are routed and executed in today’s modern and fragmented markets. The SEC’s updated rules expand the scope of entities subject to the reporting requirements, require more detailed information about order executions, and enhance the usefulness of the required reports by mandating that all reporting entities make a summary report of execution quality available. The availability of this augmented information will better enable retail investors and the public to identify and address issues and problems with today’s order routing and execution practices.
“Still, the SEC’s action today to increase transparency must be just the first step in addressing the unfair trading practices and structural features that have become ingrained in our markets. Conflicts of interest, payment for order flow, minimal order competition, poor execution prices, and predatory high-frequency trading combine to take billions of dollars out of retail investors’ pockets every year due to subpar order executions. The SEC has proposed other market structure reforms in an attempt to confront these issues, and we look forward to seeing the SEC take action on those reforms too. For example, the SEC should quickly adopt proposed Regulation Best Execution. Broker-dealers should be required to exercise reasonable diligence to obtain the most favorable prices for their customers under prevailing market conditions. A strong duty of best execution would prevent brokers from simply routing retail orders to wholesalers in return for payment for order flow and should subject retail orders to significant competition.”
See our comment letter for more information on the Disclosure of Order Execution Information rule and our fact sheet on the remaining proposed market structure rules.
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
