The controversial Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), which has already been fending off lawsuits and industry pushback, has had “instances of millions if not billions of late or inaccurately reported order events,” says Bill St. Louis, executive vice president and head of enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The need to stay on top… 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 Data Helps SEC Build Insider Trading Case
The ambitious, big data, securities transaction monitoring project known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) helped SEC officials build a case in an alleged, multi-year, insider trading scheme that yielded $47 million for the accused perpetrators, according to the SEC. “The SEC staff analyzed trading using the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database to uncover [Alan]… 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 >>
SEC Officials Must Finalize CAT Data Security: SIFMA
Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president and CEO of SIFMA, is calling upon the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pick up the pace when it comes to a data security proposal for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system, which is slated to go live in July. The CAT system is the result of SEC Rule… Read More >>
SIFMA Draws Attention to CAT Data Issues
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has had securities industry data breaches on its mind lately. First, SIFMA is calling on the SEC to temporarily halt the technical specification process for the Customer and Account Information System (CAIS) of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) because the industry group is questioning whether the data… 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 >>
Cowen Uses n-Tier for CAT Reporting System
CAT System Aggregates Internal & External Reports Investment bank Cowen has gone live with a Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) data aggregation and validation process that uses regulatory reporting vendor n-Tier’s Compliance Workbench to pull together external and internal reports, officials say. The system from n-Tier gathers CAT reports from “external vendors and internal trading systems,”… Read More >>
SIFMA & SROs Settle CAT Fight
SIFMA and key securities exchanges/self-regulatory organizations (SROs) have settled a big disagreement over the liability for data breaches that may occur via the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) big data market surveillance initiative. As envisioned, the CAT data repository of securities transaction data would enable regulatory surveillance via “an extensive audit trail that will capture customer… Read More >>
