Outside FINRA offices in New York. (Photo: ThinkAdvisor/Ronald Pechtimaldjian)
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and national securities exchanges have failed to begin reporting required data under the first phase of the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT, as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and have given the securities regulator an updated timetable, according to head of the agency's Division of Trading and Markets.
The SEC adopted Rule 613 of Regulation NMS requiring the self-regulatory organizations — FINRA and the national securities exchanges — to develop and submit to the SEC a plan to create, implement and maintain CAT, which would track market trading activity.
In a Monday statement, Brett Redfearn, director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, stated that under the plan developed by the SROs, the first phase of reporting to the CAT—covering SRO reporting — was required to begin on Nov. 15, 2017.
In the fall of 2017, the SROs requested that the SEC grant relief from this deadline, but SEC Chairman Jay Clayton declined.
"To date, the SROs have not begun reporting required data to the CAT as required by the first phase of the SRO CAT Plan," Redfearn stated. "There continue to be delays in the SROs' development and build of the CAT, and, recently, the SROs and [Thesys Technologies LLC, the tech company chosen to build the CAT] have missed new, self-imposed deadlines."
