A top securities regulator is calling for his agency to beef up its oversight of the nation’s stock exchanges to root out conflicts and curb rising fees that he says are harming investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a policy speech to be delivered Wednesday, Robert J. Jackson Jr., a Democratic commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, will allege that the SEC has “stood on the sidelines” as the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Inc. and other market operators have significantly boosted their profits while raising investors’ costs, according to a copy of his remarks. Jackson will call on the SEC to ensure “that the exchanges’ actions do not unduly burden competition and are fair and reasonable.” All of the currently active U.S. stock exchanges are for-profit enterprises, a reversal of the way the stock market operated for nearly two centuries. The NYSE, for instance, was a member-owned nonprofit until 2006 and was later acquired by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., an Atlanta-based global exchange operator. Critics charge that for-profit exchanges exploit their central position in the markets to extract greater fees from traders.
