To boost bond market transparency, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) is looking to cut trade reporting deadlines from 15 minutes to one minute.
FINRA’s proposal would require trades for securities such as corporate bonds, agency debt and asset-backed securities to be reported one minute after execution, with the data then shared with investors.
Fixed-income markets have evolved since the trade reporting regime was introduced in 2002 and the 15-minute reporting limit was adopted in 2005, particularly with a surge in the use of electronic trading platforms.
FINRA said it’s been considering ways to provide “more timely, granular and informative data” to “enhance the value of disseminated transaction data.”
The proposal is out for comment until Oct. 3.
FINRA’s notice said that cutting the reporting time “may improve transparency and allow investors and other market participants to obtain and evaluate pricing information more quickly — creating a qualitative increase in market transparency for these securities.”
Better transparency would enhance price discovery, reduce trading costs and improve executions for investors, it said.
Already, about 81.9% of trades are reported to FINRA in less than a minute, the notice said.
The SRO also said it’s considering other enhancements to the reporting framework, including changes to the data that is collected and publicly disseminated.