The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) had a controversial path on the way to becoming a key weapon of U.S. market regulators in their fight against the manipulation of financial markets and other abuses that leave an electronic trail. But it looks as if the CAT surveillance system might be on a challenging path again, as… Read More >>
Is the SEC Defanging or Protecting the CAT?
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 >>
SEC Quietly Approves Cost Savings for the CAT System
It’s been a while since I wrote about the ambitious and controversial big data, U.S. securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), which has been helping regulators FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) monitor U.S. equity and options markets, exchanges, participants, transactions, and more. CAT issues have receded as… 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 >>
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 >>
Indus Valley Partners Targets CAT Regulatory Reporting
Financial technology vendor Indus Valley Partners (IVP) has launched a module for its IVP Raptor regulatory reporting platform that targets buy-side firms required to comply with FINRA’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) initiative to collect every order, cancellation, modification and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and options transacted via U.S. financial markets. The SEC-approved CAT… Read More >>
CAT Moves Closer to Becoming a Reality
The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) is approaching a milestone on Nov. 15 as major self-regulatory organizations (SROs) and exchanges are slated to start sending quote, order, trade and related information to the CAT central repository as specified under the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Plan (CAT NMS Plan). As many will recall,… Read More >>
