WASHINGTON — A brokerage firm that operates a so-called "dark pool" trading system has agreed to pay $2 million to settle federal civil charges of using customers' confidential trading data to market its services.
The settlement between Liquidnet Inc. and the Securities and Exchange Commission was announced Friday, a day after SEC Chair Mary Jo White proposed new rules that could bring closer oversight of high-speed trading and dark trading pools, which account for as much as 35 percent of trades.
Unlike public stock exchanges, dark pools are private, off-market platforms that offer limited information about participants or operations.
The SEC said that Liquidnet improperly gave access to confidential trading information to a brokerage unit outside its dark pool.
New York-based Liquidnet neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing under the settlement.
===
Don't know who will get the money if Liquidnet actually pays the fine. Hope it's not Goldman Sachs.
| 