NYSE chief seeks regulatory venture with NASD: WSJ

February 23, 2006
Reuters

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chief John Thain backs the idea of a joint venture with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to regulate brokerage firms and hopes to create one by year's end, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The report, citing an interview with Thain, said the NYSE's chief executive believed a joint venture "is the right way" to scrap redundant rules and reviews faced by brokerage firms.

The NASD regulates most brokerage firms in the United States, while the NYSE Regulation oversees several hundred large firms that are members of its exchange. Both are private groups supervised by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

U.S. regulators have been debating how to reorganize Wall Street's police force to cut the cost and inconvenience of dual oversight for firms that are subject to both organizations.

The NASD argued in a recent letter to the SEC that the NYSE should not play a major regulatory role as it implements plans to become a for-profit company, the Journal report said.

NYSE officials would like to see a self-regulator jointly owned by the NASD and the NYSE's regulatory unit, which will be a not-for-profit division of the future NYSE Group following its purchase of electronic trading firm Archipelago Holdings Inc., the report said.