The headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are seen in Washington, July 6, 2009. FollowOct 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street's top regulator on Wednesday proposed new regulations it said should level the playing field among broker-dealers operating on U.S. stock exchanges by ending pricing schemes that tend to favor bigger players. At a public meeting in Washington, a divided five-member U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to propose banning stock exchanges from offering lower transaction prices and rebates to brokerages with higher trading volumes, something officials said creates unfair competitive advantages for larger firms. The ban on transaction price discounts and rebates would not apply when brokerages trade for themselves, SEC officials said in advance of the meeting. In those cases, stock exchanges will have to disclose pricing tiers and the number of exchange members who qualify to the SEC, which will make this available to the public.

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Persons: Jim Bourg, Gary Gensler, Hester Peirce, Ellen Greene, Douglas Gillison, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, REUTERS, AddSekkei Inc, Exchange, Republican, American Securities Association, Securities Industry, Financial Markets Association, Thomson Locations: Washington, brokerages