US to introduce market regulator

THE HEAD of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt, is to announce radical plans for a single regulatory body to oversee all the country's stock markets, effectively ending the 65-year-old system of self-regulation. The proposals, to be made public today, are expected to provoke fierce opposition from the New York Stock Exchange, which prides itself on its autonomy and system of internal regulation.

Pressure for change has come from Wall Street's three biggest broking companies - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch - which have been concerned about what they see as increasing disorder in the markets. The spread of electronic trading, the growing practice of companies selling their shares direct to the public and the likelihood of extended trading hours have raised doubts about the efficacy of the current regulatory system.