Our Latest Comment Letter on the CHX Acquisition

It has been over 23 months since the Chicago Stock Exchange provided the SEC with a merger agreement for our proposed acquisition by the NA Casin investor group. During those 23 months:

• The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) determined that this deal poses NO threat to the National Market System or to the United States
• The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission approved this deal in August 2017

Since the SEC staff’s approval, the SEC Commissioners have continued to delay taking a vote, using a rule that circumvents the Congressionally imposed 240-day deadline for a decision, leaving the deal in indefinite limbo.

This acquisition would provide vital capital to the Exchange, which would be used to boost numerous initiatives designed to benefit the city of Chicago, the U.S. economy and market structure as a whole. (More on this from CHX board member, and member of the acquisition group, Tony Saliba: Part One and Part Two.) In delaying the ruling indefinitely, the SEC is, in fact, in violation of the Exchange Act. Accordingly, the Exchange has respectfully requested that the Commission lift the ill-advised and improper stay and affirm the Approval Order, as amended by Amendment No. 2, without further delay.

Our full comment letter to the SEC can be viewed here: https://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-chx-2016-20/chx201620-2903449-161835.pdf