The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to propose amendments to the US national market system plan governing the Consolidated Audit Trail (the CAT NMS Plan) which aims to track orders throughout their life cycle and identify the broker-dealers handling them, thus allowing regulators to more efficiently track activity in securities throughout the US markets.
The proposed amendments to the CAT NMS Plan would require self-regulatory organizations that are participants to the CAT NMS Plan to file with the SEC and publish a complete implementation plan for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and quarterly progress reports, each of which must be approved by the Operating Committee established by the CAT NMS Plan and submitted to the CEO, President, or equivalently situated senior officer at each participant. In addition, the proposed amendments would include financial accountability provisions that establish target deadlines for four implementation milestones and reduce the amount of fee recovery available to the participants if those target deadlines are missed.
“CAT needs to be implemented without further delays,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “The proposed amendments are designed to bring greater transparency and accountability to the implementation of the CAT.” The public comment period will remain open for 45 days following publication of the proposing release in the Federal Register.
