The rumored decision not to ban payment for order flow (PFOF) in the US has been described by market participants as a failure for the administration of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the chairmanship of Gary Gensler, who had previously voiced strong concerns around the practice. But Financial Industry partner and former SEC commissioner counsel Nicholas Losurdo offers a different perspective in the International Financial Law Review. "There's always a boogeyman, and every couple years, it changes," Losurdo said. "PFOF is back at the forefront, but it really depends on which angle you look at it from: a retail investor getting live quotes in real time and essentially guaranteed executions with a whole load of research to back it up — that can't be entirely bad."