Leaders of Trading Exchanges Talk With Regulators Over Dark Pools

“The chief executives of the three largest stock exchanges are joining forces for the first time to push regulators to rein in the increasing amount of trading that is moving off public exchanges and onto platforms like so-called dark pools.

The leaders of the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and BATS Global Markets, the third largest exchange operator, are planning to meet on Tuesday with officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people briefed on the meeting.

The officials will be pushing regulators to step up their oversight of private trading platforms such as dark pools, which are generally owned by banks and allow investors to trade out of the public eye, the people said. As the amount of trading taking place away from the public exchanges has grown rapidly, regulators have been examining whether dark pools create an uneven playing field for some investors.

The exchanges have been relatively restrained in publicly criticizing off-exchange trading because the banks that run the dark pools are also among the largest customers of the exchanges. Cooperation among the exchanges has also been difficult because of their fierce competition…”

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