The topic of market data and its relationship to the national market system is defined under the 1975 Amendments to the Securities Acts. Market data is the oxygen of the financial markets—the lynchpin for forming a national market. In the 1975 Amendments, Congress established a process that resulted in the formation of the Securities Information Processor(s) and the consolidated tape. It required brokers to provide immediately and without compensation quotation and transaction information to the exchanges, which were then mandated to consolidate the data and disseminate it to the public. Congress instructed the SEC to ensure that market data fees are fair, reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory.

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