Payment for order flow models "undermine the relationship between the broker and their client," Duke Law professor tells Congress

• Duke Law Professor Gina-Gail S. Fletcher appeared in a hearing with the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Tuesday.
• In the hearing the professor said payment for order flow models pit brokers profits against their clients'.
• Other experts on the panel even called for the payment for order flow model to be banned altogether.

In a Tuesday hearing held by the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senators sat down with five experts to discuss "Who Wins on Wall Street? GameStop, Robinhood, and the State of Retail Investing."

In the hearing, Duke Law Professor Gina-Gail S. Fletcher was asked by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) about stock brokerages using the payment for order flow business model.

Payment for order flow (PFOF) entails brokerages selling customers' buy and sell orders to market-makers like Citadel Securities, Virtu, or Two Sigma. This allows the firms to generate revenue without charging commissions for trades.

When asked about the PFOF model, Duke law professor Gina-Gail S. Fletcher said that payment for order flow models "undermine the relationship between the broker and their client."

The testimony was a rebuke of brokers like Robinhood, which rely on payment for order flow for the majority of their revenue.

Fletcher said that payment for order flow "pits the broker's primary revenue source directly against the clients to whom they owe a duty of best execution."

She also noted that it allows brokers to "say that they are offering zero-commission trading to retail investors when commissions are being subsidized by wholesalers."

Professor Fletcher continued: "Under the payment for order flow model, brokers are incentivized to put their own profit-seeking interest above their clients' in deciding where to route orders."

Other experts on the panel included Rachel J. Robasciotti, the founder & CEO of Adasina Social Capital, who said that payment for order flow allows brokerages to profit while they give clients trading execution prices that are well below market value.

Robasciotti argued that the practice should be banned altogether due to the lack of disclosure adding, "if you don't see what you are paying you are probably paying more than you would be comfortable with."

Other experts weren't as quick to call for a ban on the practice, but the group all agreed that the Securities and Exchange Commission should look into the payment for order flow model to decide if it should be allowed to continue.

To find out if a broker is getting paid for order flow, check out this article to learn more.