Outcries over a conflict of interest involving data processors central to securities trading could lead the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to loosen their decades-long grip over a lucrative backwater of the U.S. stock market. A lobby for the brokerage industry late Tuesday urged that the conflict, in which stock exchanges can both bid to operate a "securities information processor" (SIP) and vote for themselves, be resolved before a scheduled conference call on Wednesday. Voting to select a SIP operator has stalemated after four votes, according to three sources with knowledge of the process. The bidding is between Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and Thesys Technologies LLC, a unit of proprietary trading firm Tradeworx. A stalemate in the selection process was not resolved during the conference call, said Tom Jordan, chief executive of Jordan & Jordan, a securities industry consultancy that was retained to help in the bidding process. Jordan declined further comment. A letter from
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