SEC Considering Curbs After Quote Surge in U.S. Stock Market

The Securities and Exchange Commission may ask stock markets to impose fees on trading firms that submit a high number of quotations in relation to executed transactions, an executive at the regulator said.

The SEC is considering whether to urge exchanges to impose a fee for exceeding a certain order-to-execution ratio or for sending messages, which include quotes, updates, cancellations and executions, said David Shillman, associate director at the regulator’s division of trading and markets. That’s because they impose a cost on brokerages who must buy that data, said Shillman, who spoke in an interview at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference in New York.