Defender of market complexity leaves SEC

Gregg Berman, one of the US securities markets key regulators, is to leave his role assessing the controversial practice of high-frequency trading at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr Berman, a former physicist and hedge fund adviser, will finish after two years as associate director of the office of analytics and research later this month, the agency confirmed on Wednesday. He has no immediate plans for a next step, a person familiar with the situation said.

The unit is within the SEC's Trading and Markets unit and conducts quantitative research and data analysis related to the SEC's policies on markets and market structure.

Mr Berman was a moderate on the question of whether markets had become too fast and too complex and sometimes defended high-frequency traders, arguing human error was sometimes as much to blame for unusual price spikes. His views sometimes drew criticism from market participants who have argued US equities trading has become overly complex.

In a 2014 speech, he said: "What's missing from the argument is that as much as technology has driven complexity, I believe the desires of investors and investment managers - how they want to trade, the products they create, what they want to buy - requires an unavoidable increase in the complexity of our markets, and in a very real sense is also driving the need for more and faster technologies."

Mr Berman oversaw the SEC's analysis of the causes of the "Flash Crash" of May 2010 and the implementation of the Market Information Data Analytics System (Midas), which collects daily records of proprietary stock market feeds.

His departure comes as the SEC reviews its domestic market structure in the wake of high-profile criticism of the mechanics of the market.

"Gregg has played a key role in enhancing the way we deliver market information to the public and our regulatory partners," said Stephen Luparello, director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

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