On October 24, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White gave a keynote address titled “Prioritizing Regulatory Enhancements for the US Treasury Market” at the second annual conference, “The Evolving Structure of the US Treasury Market,” in New York. Among other remarks, Chairwoman White discussed the following topics:

• beginning in July 2017, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority members will be required to report transactions in US Treasury securities through TRACE, a system providing regulators (but not the public) with Treasury trade information. However, Chairwoman White stated she is interested in pursuing public transparency for Treasury trades. Similarly, the Federal Reserve Board intends to collect US Treasury securities transactions data from banks. Chairwoman White has directed the SEC staff to develop recommendations regarding the application of Reg ATS and Reg SCI to broker-dealer sponsored platforms trading government securities;
• active principal trading firms operating in the equities or US Treasury markets give “rise to the question of whether those firms are acting as dealers and [are] registered as such;”
• as mentioned in a prior speech Chairwoman White delivered in September, SEC staff will soon publish its work on disruptive trading practices in the equities markets for the public’s full consideration. The staff’s work could lead to the creation of an anti-disruptive trading rule; and
• in response to a request from the director of the Division of Trading and Markets, FINRA is reviewing its rules to determine which rules should apply to US Treasuries. FINRA staff has plans to propose application of certain conduct rules to government securities.

The full text of the speech is available here.