U.S. options exchanges will renew their pursuit of an exemption from new short-selling rules proposed by regulators because the exchanges fear such rules will disrupt trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposals outlined Wednesday lack exemptions for market makers in options or cash equities.

Market makers are traders who provide liquidity by standing ready to buy or sell contracts and securities. They need to short stocks in order to hedge risk in taking the opposite side of trades.

Options industry officials said they will review the SEC proposals, but privately remain concerned that problems that emerged during a temporary short-selling ban last year will resurface.

Industry representatives plan to use the 60-day comment period to remind the SEC of the need for a market-maker exemption. They will also have the opportunity to air their views on May 5, when the SEC holds a roundtable discussion on short-selling rules.

"This is the start of a process, and we will be part of that process," said Jim Binder, spokesman for the Options Industry Council.

Bill Brodsky, chief executive of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, stressed the "vital role" that options market-makers play in the smooth operation of markets.

"In our experience, impediments to the options market-maker's ability to engage in legitimate short selling lead to unintended consequences that adversely impact the market, such as reductions in price discovery, market liquidity and market efficiency," Brodsky said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the International Securities Exchange, the options platform owned by Deutsche Boerse's (DB1.XE) derivatives unit Eurex, said that ISE would review the proposals carefully and ensure that its markets makers are able to continue doing business.

Options market operators scrambled to gain an exemption last fall when the SEC announced it would temporarily ban short-selling in 799 stocks.

Some market makers warned that without an exemption, they would have discontinued trading options on companies covered by the ban, leaving options investors in the lurch.

The SEC proposals include two proposed market-wide short sale restrictions and three circuit-breaker models.

Two of the circuit breaker models would trigger those rules, while the third would trigger a trading ban for the rest of the day on that particular stock.

The CBOE's Brodsky, who recently took over as chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges, has made the understanding of short selling a focus of WFE's outreach efforts with regulators, particularly the SEC.

In a letter to SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro last month, NYSE Euronext (NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ), both of which run options platforms, urged the SEC to adopt a modified version of the uptick rule, and raised the market maker issue.

"The exchanges have views regarding the benefits of bona fide market making in both equities and options markets, and on the need for clear and precise guidance on what constitutes bona fide market making and for an exemption for market makers," exchange representatives wrote in the letter, adding that they planned further comment.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

(Sarah N. Lynch contributed to this story.)