What really made this approach untenable, however, was technology. Developments in electronic trading technology have made ATSs dependable and cost-effective trading venues. As a result, they have been able to wrest an ever-increasing amount of trading volume from traditional markets. As I mentioned earlier, technology has dramatically decreased the costs of entry for new ATSs, which is why we're seeing new systems pop up all the time. In adopting Regulation ATS, the Commission crafted a solution broad enough to address the challenge ATSs posed to the securities markets generally, but one sufficiently tailored to take into account the distinctions among different markets.
Additional requirements apply to high-volume ATSs.
These requirements reflect market structure concerns peculiar to the equities markets. The volume calculations reflect distinctions between equity and fixed-income markets. It is a measured approach, meant to provide the regulatory certainty necessary to encourage new entrants to introduce innovative trading systems in the equity and fixed-income markets alike. Even with Regulation ATS in place, a number of significant market structure issues still need to be resolved. One of the most pressing, and certainly among the most important, is that of for-profit exchanges.