Released on what is commonly known as “take out the trash day,” the US Department of Treasury has published its anticipated review of the US market structure.
The 220-page report follows the 147-page report on banks and credit unions, which Treasury officials released on June 12. Both documents are the results of an executive order signed by President Trump in mid-February. The order instructed the Treasury consult with the members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and publish reviews of the US financial system by segment regarding their ability to empower Americans to make informed, independent financial decisions, prevent future taxpayer-funded bailouts, and analyze regulatory impact regarding systemic risk and market failures.
The executive order also seeks to enable US companies to be competitive with foreign firms domestically and overseas, advance US interests in international financial regulatory negotiation, restore public accountability within the Federal financial regulatory agencies, and rationalize the Federal financial regulatory framework.
The omnibus review covers the commodity, credit, derivatives, and equities markets as well as asset management, central clearing, depository system, and insurance industry and non-bank financial institutions.
The report’s authors wrote that certain elements of the capital markets regulatory framework are functioning well and support healthy capital markets.
However, they also noted that regulators and the industry need to address several issues.
“For some elements, more action is needed to guard against the risks of a future financial crisis,” the authors added. “Other elements need better calibration and tailoring to help markets function more effectively for market participants. There are significant challenges with regulatory harmonization and efficiency, driven by a variety of factors including joint rulemaking responsibilities, overlapping mandates, and jurisdictional friction.”
In the meantime, it did not take long for industry insiders and watchers took to Twitter to share their initial thoughts on the review, especially regarding the equities market.
This Treasury report is pretty detailed when it comes to equity market structure. Almost as if some exchanges helped to write it.
— Joe Saluzzi (@JoeSaluzzi) October 6, 2017
US Equity Exchanges will truly hate this proposal @nyse @Nasdaq @BatsGlobal it goes a long way to breaking up their equity data franchise
— Larry Tabb (@ltabb) October 6, 2017
The Equity Market Structure section in the Treasury report has a lot to make the IEX crowd happy.
— Jim Greco (@jgreco) October 6, 2017
Given they have limited lit volume currently it wouldn’t effect them much. But yea..
— Jim Greco (@jgreco) October 6, 2017
Protected or not, IEX clearly believes that exchange listing has little to do with displayed liquidity or separate regulatory oversight…
— David Weisberger (@daveweisberger) October 6, 2017
stocks with spreads > 1 cent, are more liquid when rebates incentivize market makers; Data is VERY clear
— David Weisberger (@daveweisberger) October 6, 2017
Sure, that is true. The argument is stocks PINNED to 1 cent spreads would trade at same spread with enough liquidity w/out rebates
— David Weisberger (@daveweisberger) October 6, 2017
Depends on definition of liquid: To repeat, less than 3% of all stocks fit that definition (1 cent being too wide)
— David Weisberger (@daveweisberger) October 6, 2017