Dark pool operators face up to new regulatory attention

Even dark pools have not escaped the regulatory spotlight – and financial supervisors in the EU and elsewhere are now facing up to the question of whether they provide value to the market as a whole, and how (or if) their activities should be limited

The spotlight fixed on the dark pool industry over recent weeks has come as something of a shock to a section of the industry used to existing away from the public gaze. The publication of a new book, Flash Boys, by former Wall Streeter Michael Lewis, has attracted intense regulatory and public attention to the negative aspects of both high-frequency trading and dark pools. But the book also invoked fury from some in the industry who see only misrepresentation and oversimplification of a