It's unlikely the SEC will require FINRA to disclose the identities of dark pools at the time it reports dark pool trades, even though it made that recommendation back in November, reports Traders' Peter Chapman.  That proposal - real-time reporting of the identities of ATS's, including dark pools - was presented in a 3-part package of rules, in an effort to level the playing field between ATSs and exchanges.

"Based on feedback from regulators, clients and the industry, our assumption is that the Commission will opt for end-of-day reporting," said Dan Mathisson, who heads up Credit Suisse's AES division.  Credit Suisse, coincidentally, operates Crossfinder, the industry's largest dark pool.

Dark pools today report trades in real time to FINRA's TRF's and FINRA, in turn, disseminates those trades to the Consolidated Tape.  But it doesn't reveal the identities of the dark pools.  Mr. Mathisson expects this practice to continue, although their identities will be revealed at the end of the day.  Any change in the SEC's stance would likely be due to the pushback it received from buyside traders and dark pool operators.  They argued in the months following the SEC's proposal that such a requirement would needlessly expose their orders to predatory traders and push up their execution costs.

The SEC's dark pool proposal excludes those prints of $200,000 or more.  The comment period for the "Regulation of Non-Public Trading Interest" proposal, which also addresses actionable IOI's (indications of interest), ended earlier this year - in February.   [TradersMagazine, 10/15]