On-Line Brokerage: Keeping Apace of Cyberspace

1 On-Line brokerage : Keeping Apace of CyberspaceEXECUTIVE advances in information technology -- particularly the Internet -- arerevolutionizing commerce. The securities industry, most significantly On-Line brokerage , isat the forefront of this reports estimate that last year s $415 billion in online brokerage assetswill grow by more than sevenfold to $3 trillion in 2003. The million On-Line accountsopen in 1997 have almost tripled to reach million by the second quarter of this trading volumes have increased dramatically over the last several to one analyst, volume has increased from under 100,000 trades per day in thesecond quarter of 1996 to over half a million in the second quarter of 1999. Thepercentage of equity trades conducted On-Line has grown to percent of all equitytrades in the first quarter of brokerage has significantly changed the dynamics of the marketplace,causing one of the biggest shifts in individual investors' relationships with their brokerssince the invention of the telephone.

2 For the first time ever, investors can -- from thecomfort of their own homes -- access a wealth of financial information on the same termsas market professionals, including breaking news developments and market data. Inaddition, On-Line brokerage provides investors with tools to analyze this information, suchas research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, On-Line brokerage enablesinvestors to act quickly on this pace of change and the strength of the securities markets generally has enabledinvestors to more directly participate in the securities markets. This confluence of events -- the development of technology affordable to investors and increased investor access --has raised a number of questions for the industry and the regulators. The questionsaddressed in this Report will the brokerage industry look like in the future? Where is itheaded?The Report provides a number of statistics to put in context the growth andactivities of On-Line investors and firms.

3 It also describes the various products and servicescurrently offered On-Line . Finally, the Report describes various trends in the industry,including: (a) the continued growth of On-Line investing and the pressure it has put ontraditional firms to offer On-Line services; (b) how the growth of On-Line brokerage will2impact the services firms offer going forward; and (c ) how firms are developingtechnology to provide automated, but personalized, advice On-Line . challenges do regulators face in applying the suitability doctrineon- line ?A well-established doctrine, suitability refers to a broker-dealer s obligation torecommend only those investments that are suitable for a customer. In order to trigger asuitability obligation, a registered representative must make an investmentrecommendation to his or her customer. In the On-Line environment, pinpointing whatconstitutes a recommendation can be difficult. As data mining technology enables on-linefirms to customize information and provide it to customers, this question becomes evenmore has technology impacted On-Line firms performance andevaluation of their best execution obligations?

4 The duty of best execution requires a broker-dealer to seek the most advantageousterms reasonably available under the circumstances for a customer's transaction. Althoughthis duty evolves with changes in technology and market structure, the Commission hasstated that broker-dealers must carry out regular and rigorous evaluations of executionquality across markets and consider price improvement opportunities. The combinedevents over the last three years of : (a) the growth of On-Line brokerage , (b) the move toquoting in sixteenths,( c) implementation of the Order Handling Rules, and (d) advances in order routingtechnologies have impacted how firms approach fulfilling their best execution have On-Line investors demand for market information impactedthe pricing of real-time data? The federal securities laws grant the Commission broad authority over informationabout securities quotations and transactions. The Commission must ensure that marketparticipants and the public can obtain this information on terms that are "fair andreasonable" and "not unreasonably discriminatory.

5 " The Internet s ability to broadlydisseminate real-time information to the public and the concomitant rise of on-linebrokerage have substantially increased demand for market data. This demand has raised anumber of questions, including: (a) whether individual investors pay too much for theinformation and (b) how much of that data revenue should be devoted to the operations ofself-regulatory do firms ensure sufficient capacity to keep up with the systemsdemands resulting from On-Line trading?Over the past year, many On-Line firms have experienced some type of systemsdelay or outage that affected the ability of their customers to place orders. Despite the3industry s efforts to improve capacity, the Commission s highest number of complaintsabout On-Line trading comes from customers who cannot access their firms' systems. On-Line firms vary in their approach to measuring systems capacity and in their disclosure tocustomers about the risks of systems delays and type of investor education does the typical On-Line customerneed and want?

6 Investor education is critical to investor protection. The decreased personalinteraction between an On-Line firm and its customers presents interesting challenges toproviding investor education. Investors can now access an unprecedented amount offinancial information without the guidance of a broker. Educating On-Line investorsrequires an understanding of how these investors trade and the appropriate time and placeto provide them with educational information. At the same time, the Internet provides avaluable resource for the Commission to more widely disseminate investor are the regulatory challenges involving cyber chats or on-linediscussion forums?While On-Line discussion forums may educate and provide a sense of community toinvestors, they also may provide a venue for fraudulent behavior. Many issuers monitoron- line discussions about their companies but refrain from addressing rumors about themin the marketplace for fear that they may create a continuing duty to correct or , issuers oftentimes go to court to unmask the "anonymous" posters have generally refrained from sponsoring On-Line discussion forumson their sites although anectdotal evidence indicates that some firms may consider do firms protect the privacy of their On-Line customers personalinformation?

7 Customers increasingly are concerned about the privacy of their personalinformation. As On-Line firms data mining capabilities develop and the number of financialconglomerates continues to grow, so do customers concerns about what these institutionscan and will do with their personal information. Control over customers personalinformation was recently the subject of much discussion in the financial modernizationlegislation debate. While the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires the Commission and otherregulators to adopt specific privacy rules, it appears the discussion is far from should brokerage firms be able to compensate Internet financialportals?4 Websites known as portals are considered the "on ramp" to the Internet, attractingmillions of monthly viewers. Well-known portals include Yahoo! Finance, AmericaOnline, , and Microsoft MoneyCentral. Portals have become broker-dealers'rivals for the attention of On-Line investors. In addition, portals have become importantintermediaries between broker-dealers and their customers.

8 A number of broker-dealershave entered into cobranding arrangements with portals, either paying a flat up-front feeor a per order "connection" fee for every order transmitted by an investor who hyperlinksfrom a portal to the AND RECOMMENDATIONSS uitability Roundtable participants generally subscribed to the traditional notionof suitability, but suggested that the obligation did not apply to some, if not all, on-lineactivities. Although the participants were not unanimous on this point, the majority ofthem wanted clarification or guidance from regulators. Resolving this issue will requireseveral considerations. First, how should the regulators interpret the concept of recommendation online? Push and pull technologies make this a difficult question toanswer. Regulators need to consider how defining suitability On-Line may impactinformation flow and customer access. Although some would argue that the Internetgives investors (and consumers generally) too much information, investors may not wantthis information flow restricted, even at the expense of receiving unsuitable Report recommends that the information from the industry on: (a) how data mining productswould work, (b) what information the products would provide to the firms,and(c ) whether customers would understand that the firm had provided themwith customized information; , include as part of future Commission or SRO examinations areview of what services firms provide to their customers based oninformation derived from data mining.

9 With the SROs to consider the hypothetical scenarios and relevantanalysis, found in the Appendix to the Suitability Section of the Report, inproviding guidance to the industry regarding On-Line suitability Execution Technology is making best execution an especially criticalconcept in today's market structure, and a significant competitive factor. Indeed,technology provides firms with the opportunity to adopt a new approach to order routingand to meeting their best execution obligations. In the roundtable discussions, many On-Line brokerage participants contended that speed and certainty of execution are factors thatshould receive greater emphasis in their best execution evaluations. Moreover, some5participants questioned whether On-Line customers actually understood how their brokers'order routing decisions affected their total execution Report recommends that the the industry to demonstrate the relative importance of factorssuch as speed and certainty of execution in today's market environment; requiring market centers to make certain uniform informationavailable on various best execution factors; requiring broker-dealers to regularly provide customers with plainEnglish information about: (a) the execution quality available on differentmarket centers; (b) the broker-dealer s order handling practices; and (c)inducements for receiving order flow received by the broker-dealer; and the potential impact of new order routing technologies on brokers'best execution obligations, investors, and the Data The Report briefly outlines the pricing structure for retail users ofmarket data.

10 Roundtable participants generally agreed that the Internet warrants areevaluation of the pricing model for delivering real-time market data to individualinvestors. However, the participants recognized the industry's need to meet the costs ofcreating and maintaining an infrastructure to collect and disseminate market Report concludes that the Commission should encourage the broadest possibledissemination of real-time market data to investors, which requires evaluating whether thecurrent pricing scheme for market data is consistent with the federal securities the Commission currently is involved in such an evaluation, the Reportrecommends that the Commission's upcoming market data concept release address theissues raised in this Capacity In the roundtable discussions, the participants acknowledgedoccasional systems failures are inevitable, but indicated that they have committedsignificant resources to ensuring that their systems remain operational.