(9 years, 4 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I am certainly not complacent. The noble Lord raises a good point, and I reiterate that the Government take the matter of regulating financial markets in their entirety very seriously and closely follow developments in these markets. As I said, investment firms and trading venues should ensure that robust measures are in place to prevent automated trading creating a disorderly market and being used for abusive purposes. The new rules under MiFID II will ensure that such measures are in place.
My Lords, I am a bear of little brain in relation to algo-whatever-it-is trading, and I speak as a fool. However, would this not all be solved if there was a rule that if you bought shares, you had to keep them for more than a few nanoseconds—maybe a few minutes?
The right reverend Prelate makes an interesting point. I refer him to the excellent Foresight report, which says that,
“liquidity, as measured by bid-ask spreads”—
I will test him on that later—
“and other metrics, has improved”.