NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday voted in favor of proposing some of the biggest changes to the structure of American equity markets in nearly two decades, aimed at boosting competition, transparency and fairness.

The proposals include new rules that would require marketable retail stock orders to be sent to auctions before they are executed, a new standard for brokers to show they get the best possible executions for client orders, and lower trading increments and access fees on exchanges.

(Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Chris Reese)