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WASHINGTON, Mar 5 (Reuters): A postponement may be in the works for approaching deadlines to implement new US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules on stock market pricing and trading, SEC officials said Saturday.
"We think it's fair to ask whether the existing deadlines remain realistic," said David Shillman, a senior official in the SEC's Market Regulation Division during a panel discussion at the annual SEC Speaks conference in Washington.
"The staff is discussing it internally. I would expect the commission to decide in the near-term if an extension is warranted and if so, for how long," Shillman said.
The SEC voted in April 2005 to adopt Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS), a far-reaching set of pricing and trading reforms. The vote came amid intense debate over its most complex section, the order protection rule.
As adopted, the rule bars traders from ignoring the best price for a stock when executing a buy or sell order, as long as the price is available on a fast, automated market.
If the best quoted price is only available on a so-called slow market, like the manual New York Stock Exchange trading floor, then it may be bypassed.
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