On November 18, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) proposed significant changes to the regulatory requirements applicable to dark pools and other alternative trading systems (“ATSs”) that trade national market system stocks (“NMS Stock ATSs”). As a general matter, the proposed changes to Regulation ATS (“Reg ATS”), promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), are designed to: (1) provide detailed public information to market participants about the potential conflicts of interest and operations of NMS Stock ATSs, their broker-dealer operators and the affiliates of their broker-dealer operators to allow such market participants to better determine where to send their orders; (2) provide more information to the SEC so it may more effectively regulate NMS Stock ATSs; and (3) adjust the regulatory obligations applicable to competing ATSs and national securities exchanges.
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