FIA Urges Further Consideration before Approval of Registration Application of Investors' Exchange LLC

The Futures Industry Association Principal Traders Group ("FIA PTG") submitted a comment letter (the "Comment Letter") that urged the SEC not to approve the recently amended application for registration as a national securities exchange by the Investors' Exchange, LLC ("IEX"). In a November 6, 2015 comment letter (the "Original Letter") to the SEC regarding IEX's initial application, the FIA PTG expressed concerns about IEX's application because (1) IEX's proposal gave its quotations protected status despite such quotations being subject to an intentional delay, (2) it introduced pegged order types with a speed advantage over other order types and (3) IEX's affiliated broker-dealer was not subject to the same access delay as other, nonaffiliated broker-dealers.

While FIA PTG's Comment Letter acknowledged that the amended application "responded positively to the concerns about [IEX's] attempt to provide latency advantages to its affiliated broker-dealer," it nonetheless asserted that IEX's amended application still does not address the FIA PTG's first two concerns, which must be addressed prior to SEC approval. Additionally, in light of the recent IEX amendment to its application, the FIA PTG asked the SEC to reopen the comment period in order to "afford the public adequate opportunity to review and provide feedback on IEX's proposed changes."