After a week of extreme market volatility, former City minister Lord Myners has called on the UK government to investigate high-frequency trading.
Myners told the Sunday Telegraph that rather than the recent focus on shorting, there needs to be a more sustained effort to deal with computerised algorithmic trading.
"High-frequency trading appears so detached from the true function of capital markets, but is potentially fraught with hazard. It definitely deserves more attention than either the FSA or the Treasury has given it," he told the paper.
With well over a third of the UK's equity trading volume generated through HFT, the government has set up a study into its impact, conducted by a group including the Bank of England's Andy Haldane and former LSE chief Clara Furse.
The group is not set to report until next Autumn although Haldane recently floated the prospect of speed limits on high frequency trading to prevent the risk of market abnormalities disrupting prices.
Meanwhile the FSA told the Telegraph that it is taking part in a European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) consultation on the issue.
Lord Myners calls for inquiry on 'black box' trading - Telegraph