Sept 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street's top regulator is due

to vote next week on proposed new regulations to allow the

pricing of stocks in increments of less than a penny, part of a

pending structural overhaul of equities markets, a Thursday

scheduling announcement showed.

The five-member U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will

consider adopting new rules on minimum pricing increments --

known in stock markets as "tick sizes" -- at a public meeting at

10:00 a.m. Eastern (1400 GMT) on Sept. 18.

The proposal was among a package of new regulations the SEC

unveiled in December 2022 that together would amount to the

biggest changes to equity market structure in nearly 20 years.

The SEC says both buyers and sellers could obtain better

prices if price changes occurred in increments of less than a

penny. Stock prices which would not benefit from more aggressive

pricing in this band are considered "tick constrained".

Under the 2022 proposal, stock prices for quotation and

trading would fall into one of four minimum tick sizes: a penny,

a half penny, a fifth of a penny and a tenth of a penny.

The SEC has not disclosed what changes, if any, officials

have made to the proposal due to be finalized next week.

However, industry groups and Republican lawmakers have

expressed concern, calling instead for a half-penny minimum.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

said a half-penny tick size for stock price quotations and

trading could be beneficial, but called on the SEC to do more to

determine which stocks are truly "tick constrained".

Tick sizes of $0.001 or $0.002 are "too granular," SIFMA

said, and could lower liquidity or cause "flickering", where

prices move repeatedly between two or more values.

It is unclear if or when the SEC may move to finalize the

other three 2022 market structure proposals, which included

requiring marketable retail stock orders to be sent to auction

before they can be executed and setting a new standard for stock

brokers to show they deliver the best possible order executions.