(Sept 18): The price increments at which thousands of stocks and ETFs are quoted look set for an overhaul on Wednesday, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) votes on final rules to reduce them to less than one cent. 

That might help trading venues such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Inc, among others, to better compete with wholesalers that can quote in finer increments outside of an exchange.

The changes could apply to about 2,400 securities, including stocks and exchange-traded funds, SEC officials said on Tuesday during a press briefing. The number of so-called tick-constrained stocks affected by the new increments might change over time. Tick-constrained stocks include those with bid-offer spreads of less than a cent. 

For years, market participants have complained that requiring exchanges to quote stocks at increments of at least one cent restricts liquidity and competition for order flow. 

The rules would also lower the maximum amount of fees exchanges charge some brokers to access protected quotes on their platforms to US$0.001 per share for stocks priced at US$1 (RM4.27) or more. Exchanges would be able to charge higher fees, as much as 0.1% of the quotation price per share for stocks under US$1. 

Those changes are largely in line with what the SEC first proposed in December 2022. Market participants have warned they may sue the agency over the lower access fee caps. Such fees help fund the rebates some exchanges offer brokers to entice order flow to their platforms. 

Currently, a significant chunk of retail trades are handled by wholesale brokerages like Virtu Financial Inc and Citadel Securities, which pay to process customer trades from firms such as Robinhood Markets Inc.

The access fee caps help to ensure that market participants have fair access to the best displayed prices, the SEC said in a fact sheet.

The agency also would require the total amount of exchange fees, rebates and other forms of remuneration to be determined at the time of execution, rather than at a later date as they are now. That move is intended to increase transparency of execution costs, the SEC said.

The rules are among a suite of market-structure overhauls proposed under SEC chair Gary Gensler’s tenure. The agency approved one measure earlier this year to require brokers to give better disclosure about the execution quality they offer traders. Two other measures proposed in the four-rule suite in December 2022 are still pending.

Large exchanges have said that lowering the fee caps could make it more costly for them to offer rebates to some brokers to lure trade orders to their platforms. 

Nasdaq hinted in a recent comment letter that it might sue the SEC, depending on how low it sets the fee caps. Nasdaq likened the agency’s moves over pricing to an attempt to regulate exchanges “like public utilities” and said the SEC would likely lose if the rule is challenged in court. 

Smaller exchanges like IEX Exchange, however, have supported the move and said the caps could help them compete for order flow with more established players.

If approved, the rules will take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. But compliance wouldn’t be required until November 2025 for most of the rules’ provisions.

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