Is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) undercutting or protecting the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) through a new exemption that would allow “natural persons” to sidestep supplying “certain personally identifiable information (PII)” such as names, addresses, and years of birth? CAT is an ambitious and controversial big data, U.S. securities transaction monitoring project that has… Read More >>
Instinet Fined $3.8M for Alleged CAT Reporting Failures
Instinet has paid a $3.8 million fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and settled allegations that the institutional broker failed to fulfill its reporting obligation “timely and accurately” to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system from June 2020 to the present, according to the self-regulatory organization (SRO). The ambitious, big data, securities transaction… Read More >>
CAT Overseers Shift Key Deadline for Broker-Dealers
A new deadline has been set for a key aspect of the ambitious, big data, securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). The new deadline is intended to help broker-dealers grappling with the inclusion of information about customer accounts, and the deadline extension will give CAT participants more time to deal… Read More >>
SIFMA Praises CAT Compliance Deadline Extension
There’s a twist in the ongoing saga of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) via a new delay that actually has the approval of a key player in the securities industry. To remind you, the CAT system is the result of SEC Rule 613, which requires U.S. securities exchanges and FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for… Read More >>
Congress Should Rein In Exchanges: SIFMA
SIFMA wants Congress to shake up the legal framework for securities exchanges. This is because some key federal securities laws are preserving advantages for exchanges but may be harming investors, says Ellen Greene, SIFMA managing director, equity and options market structure, in her recent testimony before Congress. But there are ways to fix the situation,… Read More >>
CAT Reporting Teaches Sell Side New Lessons
Despite the pandemic, sell-side firms in 2020 met a very challenging first-round of compliance with the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) trade data surveillance regulatory initiative, learning firsthand that gathering, cleansing, and reporting interfirm transaction data to regulators is much easier said than done. Yet firms are applying lessons learned and more to the CAT deadlines… Read More >>
SEC Amendments Jolt CAT Project
The SEC is proposing amendments to the implementation of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) project that are intended to increase operational transparency and underscore the financial accountability of the market-wide surveillance project that has experienced several delays since its launch. In fact, earlier this year, Thesys Technologies, acting as Thesys CAT, was phased out as… Read More >>
Buy-Side Traders Question Need for CAT: Report
The big data project, the consolidated audit trail (CAT) to collect every order, cancellation, modification and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and options transacted via U.S. financial markets, apparently had some doubters on the buy side before the project hit a major snag earlier this month The concerns of buy-side equity traders about the… Read More >>
Thesys Out as Plan Processor for CAT Project
The ambitious consolidated audit trail (CAT) industry project has suddenly moved into a new chapter with the revelation late last week that Thesys Technologies, acting as Thesys CAT, will be phased out as the plan processor for the SEC-mandated big data initiative. A transition is underway to designate a new plan processor to collect every… Read More >>
Liquidity Fragmentation Slams Options Market Makers: Report
Market makers working in U.S. listed options markets say that while they have seen significant structural improvements such as exchanges improving risk protection capabilities, “the proliferation of options exchanges and inherent fragmentation of liquidity” have become major challenges, according to a new report from Burton-Taylor International Consulting. Liquidity fragmentation is the result of the proliferation of exchanges… Read More >>
