Wall Street asks SEC to delay market data rulings
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's lobbying group has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to delay any rulings that would let stock exchanges sell real-time pre-trade stock data to Internet sites.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association on Friday said it urged the SEC to implement a moratorium on market data rule filings until the agency addresses "fundamental legal and policy issues" created by the for-profit status of stock exchanges.
The NYSE last week asked the SEC to approve a program that could bring real-time final-trade quotes to Internet users in exchange for payments from Web site owners of $100,000 a month. Most Web sites, which typically serve small investors, provide stock trades that are delayed by 20 minutes.
Citing the exchanges' control of market data, SIFMA said the SEC first should review the underlying cost data and competitiveness issues for all exchanges that provide pre-trade data. The SEC also should determine whether appropriate access to the product would be available and if the proposed fee were fair and reasonable.
"The SEC cannot simply ignore the conflicts of interest inherent in today's for-profit exchanges," SIFMA co-Chief Executive Marc Lackritz said in a statement. "The exchanges' unique regulatory status allows them to profit from their market data without the threat of competition."
Lackritz added that "all investors and the professionals who serve them" must have access to the same quotes.
An SEC spokesman on Friday declined to comment on the request to delay.
NYSE Group Inc.'s Ron Jordan, senior vice president of market data, said real-time data is already widely available to all individual investors.
"Consumers should have access to as much choice in data products as possible, and that's what the NYSE will continue to provide," he added.
An NYSE executive last week told Reuters the service could be rolled out as soon as March, depending on the length of the SEC approval process. The NYSE said some information, like trade size, would not be sold as part of the program.
Previously, Google Inc. and business news television station CNBC have said they would offer data for free to their users. NYSE also has held talks with other Internet companies, such as Yahoo Inc..
Google is a member of a group called NetCoalition, which has complained about a lack of real-time stock data offered through services owned by the NYSE Group and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc..
(Additional reporting by John Poirier in Washington, Dan Wilchins and Jonathan Keehner in New York)
