Request for Immediate Extension of Tick Size and Access Fee Compliance Dates and Comments on MEMX’s Request for Temporary Exemptive Relief from Rule 610

Summary

SIFMA provided comments to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take immediate action to issue an order extending the compliance dates of the amendments to Rules 612 (minimum quoting increment/tick size) and 610(c) (access fee caps) of Regulation NMS (“Reg NMS”) the Commission adopted in September 2024. ¹

Excerpt

Background

On October 14, 2025, the D.C. Circuit denied a petition for review of the Commission’s amendments to Rules 610 and 612.4 On October 31, 2025, the SEC issued an order granting temporary exemptive relief (“Order”) from the then-existing compliance dates for the amendments to Rules 612 and 610(c) of Reg NMS.5 At the time of the Commission’s Order, the amendments to these rules were set to take effect on November 3, 2025. The temporary exemptive relief extended the compliance dates for the amendments until November 2, 2026. SIFMA appreciates the Commission’s extension of the original compliance dates given that they were to take effect shortly after the D.C. Circuit’s decision.

Since the date of the Order, the Commission has held two public roundtables to explore changing or repealing Rule 611 (prohibition on trade throughs) of Reg NMS.6 A few clear themes emerged from these roundtables. In the first roundtable, the theme was that market structure involves many moving, interconnected pieces, with Rule 611 as the keystone. If you move or change one piece, other parts could move as well. As such, before making any changes, it is important to identify and analyze interconnected market structure pieces and study what corresponding changes could stem from any intentional change, as well as the cumulative net effect of changes. The second roundtable delved further into what else would need to change along with changes to Rule 611. Given time constraints, the focus was on access fee caps, best execution, the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO), and market data revenue allocation.

The assessment from that roundtable was that changes to on access fee caps in Rule 610 would be under consideration with changes to Rule 611. Just as Rules 611 and 610 are closely connected, Rules 610 and the tick size requirement in 612 are closely connected. The Commission itself acknowledged this when it adopted changes to the access fee cap and tick sizes in 2024, noting “an access fee that is too high when compared to the tick size can create pricing distortions.”7 As such, the Commissioned should analyze these interconnected rules together, including consideration of potential downstream effects of any market structure changes that result from its review of Rule 611.