SEC Pushes Equity Exchanges to Redo Public Market-Data Feeds

The top US securities regulator is asking equity exchanges to revamp how they consolidate and disseminate public stock-trading data.

The Securities and Exchange Commission directed exchange firms and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to file a proposal to replace three existing plans that mandate how real-time equity market data is distributed, according to an SEC statement Friday.

“Today’s order addresses conflicts of interest inherent in the current governance structure of the existing equity data plans, and is designed to improve the efficiency” of existing so-called national market system plans, the SEC said in the statement. It’s also aimed at improving ...