For the past few years, FIA PTG has been making the case for a holistic review of equity market structure. While this will certainly entail a broad effort, there are clear starting points. As we wrote in 2015, “while details of how to get there differ, there is widespread agreement that the U.S. equity markets would benefit from more transparency, less complexity, and more efficient market data.”
In a recent paper, KCG significantly expanded on the areas of consensus on equity market structure reform, creating this table of principles and proposals endorsed by a variety of market participants.
FIA PTG is noted as supporting reducing complexity, increasing transparency, reducing fragmentation, and supporting fair access to markets. Additionally, while the materials used for this research may not have explicitly stated FIA PTG’s position on reduction of systemic risk, it is very much a principle we support. It’s also worth noting that we believe in strong, competitive, and fair markets which have effective and appropriate safeguards in place to prevent disruptive and manipulative trading. Our extensive work on risk controls in the regulation of automated trading expands this view.
While the table is not intended to be comprehensive, it provides a useful overview of some of the major points being made and should serve as a resource for further discussion.
