SEC chairman Jay Clayton. (Photo: New York Law Journal)
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said Tuesday that the fiduciary rule remains a priority for the organization he leads, though he didn't share an exact time frame for its release.
"I've been clear, the sooner the better. We're working through the process. I'd like to see it very soon," Clayton said at the Equity Market Structure symposium in Chicago. "I don't think there are any new issues. Really, the question is getting proposal out the door. It's been around a long time, so I'm looking forward to getting [it] out the door."
After his presentation, Clayton told ThinkAdvisor that the next priority for the SEC, after the fiduciary rule, is "retail fraud," especially concerning ICOs and cryptocurrencies.
The morning-long symposium, sponsored by the STA Foundation and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, drew about 130 market professionals; several market experts gave their views on potential weaknesses to the equity market structure.
Hal Scott, director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation and the Nomura Professor at Harvard Law School, noted that overall the market structure was sound, "but just needs to be adjusted."
He highlighted problems with market data, in which his committee recommended that the SEC require all self-regulatory organizations to publicly disclose revenues from proprietary data feeds and operating securities operating processors or SIPs, as well as performance data.
Speed is a key metric for data consolidators, Scott said, and a "significantly slower SIP would not survive competitive pressure. This change also would level the playing field between those who rely on SIPs and those who use proprietary data feeds."
