Bats slams Nasdaq’s proposed data feed as attempt to increase revenues

Bats has urged the SEC to reject Nasdaq’s data feed proposal, claiming it is technically unnecessary, anti-competitive and unfounded.

Bats Global Markets has slammed Nasdaq’s recent proposals to launch a third party connected data feed, and has urged US regulators to disprove it.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, Bats said the proposed feed is technically unnecessary, anti-competitive and unfounded.

Nasdaq is seeking approval from the SEC to separate physical connectivity for its UTP securities information processors (SIPs) data feeds, to a new third party service.

The segregation means users would be charged a monthly fee of $5,000 for a 10GB connection or $2,000 for a 1GB connection.

Bats said Nasdaq’s proposed fee for use of the data feeds is “simply an attempt to increase Nasdaq revenue.”

“Bats believes the true driver for the creation of a third party network is the prospect of increasing the number of physical connections, thereby increasing Nasdaq’s revenue,” the letter stated.

Bats added that the launch was “technically unnecessary” and “anti-competitive as it clearly benefit’s Nasdaq’s proprietary data products over UTP data.”

Bats has urged the SEC to disprove Nasdaq’s third party connection rule change.

Nasdaq could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.

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