[World Corporate Law News] SEC Announces Roundtable On Trade-Through Prohibitions

[2025] 178 taxmann.com 77 (Article)

World Corporate Law News provides a weekly snapshot of corporate law developments from around the globe. Here’s a glimpse of the key corporate law update this week.

1. Securities Law

1.1 SEC announces Agenda and Panelists for Roundtable on Trade-Through Prohibitions

On August 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the agenda and panelists for its September 18, 2025 roundtable on trade-through prohibitions. The roundtable will be held at the SEC’s headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C., from 9:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET. The event will be open to the public and webcast live on the www.sec.gov. Doors will open at 8:00 a.m. ET. Visitors will be subject to security checks.

For online attendance, registration is not necessary; a link to watch the event will be available on September 18 at www.sec.gov, and a recording will be available online at a later date.

Panel One will examine the experiences of market participants with trade-through prohibitions over the past 20 years. Areas for discussion will include: the effects of trade-through prohibitions on market participants and market structure, including unintended consequences of trade-through prohibitions; the effects of trade-through prohibitions on retail and institutional trading; the cost of compliance with trade-through prohibitions for different market participants; differences in experiences with trade-through prohibitions in the equity market versus the options market; and experiences in markets without a trade-through prohibition.

Panel Two will explore the role of a trade-through prohibition in today’s highly automated and connected market structure. Areas for discussion will include: whether a trade-through prohibition is necessary and what objectives it achieves; how a trade-through prohibition intersects with the fulfilment of best execution obligations; the ancillary rules that support a trade-through prohibition, such as rules restricting locking or crossing quotations and access fee caps; and whether a trade-through prohibition creates unnecessary complexity within the current market structure.

Panel Three will consider potential paths forward for trade-through prohibitions. Areas for discussion will include: maintaining the status quo; exemptions from, or modifications to, the trade-through prohibitions (e.g., market share thresholds for protected quotes or block trade exceptions); or rescinding trade-through prohibitions. The discussion will also include other necessary changes if trade-through prohibitions are limited or rescinded, such as amending or rescinding other rules, or providing guidance to market participants (e.g., additional best execution guidance).

Source – Official announcement