Recently, SIFMA held its Equity Market Structure conference, which addressed a broad range of issues.  Of course, conference participants addressed market structure concerns that may affect a company’s decision to undertake an IPO or to remain public and pointed to recent statistics, reprinted below.  The Securities and Exchange Commission has also undertaken discussions regarding equity market structure issues.  Representatives from the Commission recently spoke at a University of Chicago-sponsored symposium commenting on the Treasury Department report recommendations to review market structure issues.  The Commission has had the tick pilot in operation for some time providing for wider tick increments for smaller companies as a means of improving liquidity.  While the pilot is set to expire early in the fall, it is clear that tick size increments alone are not a solution to achieve greater liquidity in the trading of stocks of smaller companies.  For many companies considering an initial public offering, while listing rules, tick sizes and liquidity may factor into their considerations, these usually do not figure prominently in their decision making.  It is interesting that the Treasury Department report recommendations regarding equity research rules have not received more attention by the Commission or by other market participants given that research coverage (and not market structure) concerns are top of mind for management of emerging growth companies.