SEC extends three Regulation NMS compliance deadlines for trading platforms

On Friday the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), extended three of the future compliance dates for Rule 610 and Rule 611 of Regulation NMS, the US equivalent of the Markets In Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
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On Friday the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), extended three of the future compliance dates for Rule 610 and Rule 611 of Regulation NMS, the US equivalent of the Markets In Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).

The SEC is extending the three compliance dates to give automated trading platforms additional time to complete the rollout of their new or modified trading systems.

The final completion date of 8 October 2007, remains unchanged.

Rule 610 is intended to assure fair access to quotations, limit fees for accessing quotations, and require self-regulatory organizations (SROs) to prohibit their members from displaying quotations that lock or cross quotations previously displayed by other markets.

Rule 611 requires “trading centres” to establish policies and procedures to prevent “trade-throughs” – the execution of trades at prices inferior to the best-priced quotations displayed by automated trading centers.

Automated trading centres must operate trading systems that comply with the automated response and other requirements of Regulation NMS, says the SEC.

The trading systems can be operated by an SRO or operated by a broker-dealer that displays its quotes on the NASD’s Alternative Display Facility.

The Commission has extended the Trading Phase Date until 5 March 2007 (previously 5 February 2007), the Pilot Stocks Phase Date until 9 July 2007 (previously 21 May 2007), and the All Stocks Phase Date until 20 August 2007 (previously 9 July 2007).

The Commission’s extension of compliance dates is available on its website at www.sec.gov/spotlight/regnms.htm.

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