Those trading US Treasuries have temporary relief in meeting all of FINRA's requirements of reporting individual trades to the regulator's TRACE platform.
FINRA has filed a temporary rule exception that permits alternative trading systems and their subscribers to report their aggregated trade information until July 10, 2018.
The regulator noted that some ATS operators currently provide their subscribers with real-time activity monitoring during trading sessions, but deliver only a single trade message that shows a subscriber's aggregated activity during a trading session.
"The proposed rule change is intended to provide members with additional time to complete systems changes necessary to report each transaction in the trading session as required by Rule 6730," according to the filing.
However, some industry insiders do not eye FINRA's action in a positive light.
"Anytime that the capabilities of official institutions remain antiquated and out of sync with the markets they are responsible for monitoring, that is a bad thing," Susan Estes, co-founder, president and CEO of OpenDoor Securities, told Markets Media. "Regulators focus should be on the creation of data sets that are complete, and when queried appropriately, can provide valuable insights that will help drive policy making to maintain stable and orderly markets."
Estes recommended that it would be simpler for FINRA to amend Rule 6730 than engaging in discussions regarding system rebuilds.
"The technological playing field in the Treasury market is not level by any means," she said. "Our regulators are not on the forefront of technological innovation which leaves them somewhat dependent on the entities they are trying to regulate."
Estes would rather see US regulators implement reporting rules similar to the ones used by their UK and EU counterparts that collect transaction reports from every market participant, not just FINRA members, as long as it remains within the scope of market abuse regulation, she said addressing the audience at Big Data Finance Conference in May. "That should be our goal, for our official institutions."