Wall Street Investment Banks to Create System to Hide Insider Trades

Seriously. Notwithstanding protestations to the contrary, this is what a private bourse like this is for.

Banks to start trading platform
Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and others are setting up a private system to trade stocks of companies looking to avoid public scrutiny.
August 14 2007: 1:34 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Five of Wall Street’s biggest banks, including Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, said on Tuesday they were setting up a private system to trade stocks of companies eager to avoid the scrutiny of public markets.

The group, which also includes underwriter Morgan Stanley and Bank of New York Mellon, said the new platform is designed to ease trading for privately sold securities. It will target companies looking to raise capital while avoiding the rules imposed on publicly listed shares.

If the SEC were really concerned about healthy markets, it would take steps to prevent secret transactions by actors who are likely to have inside information.

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