Does the gov't or SEC need the opinions of wall street when they set the new street rules? of course the rules will be not in interest of wall street. ban on prop trading or decrease leverage or other margin cash etc. will hit the bottom line of banks and brokersages. i just want this uncertaintly to get over with it. any rules will be game changer. so adapt accordingly. make up you mind..1 year to make a decision to make changes...any changes will be like the 1934 SEC act...that ruled for 50 years. wall street didn't change til the 80's they will put any rule or changes they want. the gov't owns wall street now.
I agree -- I think forcing all this stuff into a central market would dramatically cut down on overly risky behavior by the banks. It would also make the pricing/trading of the instruments far more efficient. Municipal bonds, which are quite safe but also trade on closed markets where there's no real "reg NMS equivalent", cost 1%-2% per transaction; I can only imagine how badly inefficient the market is for these bizarre instruments. http://www.usc.edu/schools/business/FBE/seminars/papers/F_8-27-04_HARRISTradingCost.pdf