SEC: Commission Sets Dates For Market Structure Hearings

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold hearings this fall to discuss key issues relating to the structure of the U.S. equity securities markets. The Commission has initially scheduled two full-day hearings, the first to be held on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002, at the Commission's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the second, on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002, at the NYU Stern School of Business in Schimmel Auditorium, Tisch Hall, in New York City.

The hearings will address a variety of topics, including: the collection, consolidation and dissemination of market data through intermarket plans; broker-dealers' duty of best execution and corresponding marketplace rules relating to intermarket access, trade-throughs, and price protection; the role of national securities exchanges, electronic communications networks (ECNs), and alternative trading systems; and the self-regulatory system.

The Commission has invited a distinguished panel of market experts and professionals to participate in each hearing, representing the views of investors, market centers, investment firms, and the academic community. Each hearing will cover the same topics but with a different set of participants. The Commission and Commission staff will also participate in each hearing. Hearings will be open to the public and will be web-cast.

The panelists will include: John Markese, President, American Association of Individual Investors; Tom Gardner, Founder, The Motley Fool; Joel Seligman, Dean, Washington University School of Law; Maureen O'Hara, Professor of Management and Finance, Cornell University; Albert Kyle, Professor of Finance, Duke University; Ruben Lee, Oxford Financial Group, London; Richard Ketchum, President, The Nasdaq Stock Market; senior management of the New York Stock Exchange; Salvatore Sodano, Chairman and CEO, American Stock Exchange; Paul O'Kelly, President and CEO, Chicago Stock Exchange; Gary Gastineau, ETF Advisors, Rosenkranz & Co.; Tom Peterffy, Chairman, TimberHill; David Pottruck, President and Co-CEO, Schwab Capital Markets; Bernard L. Madoff, Principal, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities; Robert Steel, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs; Robert Murphy, NYSE Specialist, LaBranche & Co.; Matthew DeSalvo, Nasdaq Market Maker, Morgan Stanley; Ian Domowitz, Managing Director, Investment Technology Group; David Whitcomb, President and CEO, Automated Trading Desk; Ed Nicoll, CEO, Instinet Corporation; Gerald Putnam, CEO, Archipelago Holdings; George "Gus" Sauter, Managing Director, The Vanguard Group; Minder Cheng, Global Head of Equity and Currency Trading, Barclays Global Investors; Wayne Wagner, Chairman, Plexus Group; and Matt Gelber, Vice President, Fidelity Investments.

Additional information, including a more detailed list of topics for discussion, will be made available prior to the hearings through the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov. Copies of materials submitted by the participants will be available by contacting the SEC's Public Reference Room, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20549 or by accessing the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov.