SEC Issues Order to Reduce Operating Costs of Consolidated Audit Trail

The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued an order granting conditional exemptive relief related to certain requirements of the National Market System Plan governing the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT NMS Plan), Rule 613 of Regulation NMS, and Rule 17a-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This conditional exemptive relief allows the self-regulatory organizations that are the participants to the CAT NMS Plan to expeditiously and meaningfully reduce the operating costs of the consolidated audit trail (CAT) while maintaining core regulatory functionality. “Both the Commission and the participants that operate the CAT need to take very seriously their roles in reducing these seemingly endless cost increases. CAT must be more efficient and cost-effective, especially after the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that vacated the 2023 Funding Model Order governing the CAT,” said SEC Chairman Paul S.