The FIA Principal Traders Group today issued the following statement in response to recent remarks on U.S. equity market structure issues by Mary Jo White, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
FIA PTG welcomes Chair White and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to address perceptions and issues concerning market structure and automated trading. We support efforts by the SEC to improve public understanding, increase transparency, minimize market risks, and promote a level playing field for all market participants through evaluation and action.
We believe that many of the current market structure issues confronting the SEC involve empirical questions best resolved with the rigorous analysis of data. In doing so the SEC and other regulators will be properly equipped to ensure that any future action will enhance market structure while preserving the improvements in market quality that have resulted from greater transparency and more automated and competitive markets.
We applaud the SEC for its leadership in addressing these complex market structure issues, and we welcome the opportunity to continue working with regulators, exchanges and market participants to improve transparency, fairness, risk controls and confidence in the markets.