SEC approves CAT cost-reduction amendment
CAT Plan Participants can apply reduced data, processing and spending-cap requirements
Change
SEC approved an NMS Plan amendment reducing Consolidated Audit Trail costs by changing CAT data retention, processing, query-tool, rejected-message, customer-identifier and spending-cap requirements.
Why it matters
The amendment changes the operational rulebook for CAT data handling and cost control. Exchanges, FINRA and broker-dealer CAT reporting teams must align retention, processing, rejected-message, anonymized-customer-identifier and query-tool workflows with the amended NMS Plan requirements.
Implications
- — CAT Plan Participants must update CAT operations to reflect permitted deletion of certain data, including CAT data older than three years.
- — CAT technology and reporting teams must revise processing workflows for interim lifecycle linkages, late-record re-processing, rejected-message reporting and targeted-query functionality.
- — Broker-dealer CAT reporting teams must align customer-identifier handling with the amended anonymized customer identifier approach.
- — CAT governance and finance teams must apply the new spending-cap provision when assessing future CAT system changes.
Who is affected
- — CAT Plan Participants
- — Securities exchanges and FINRA
- — Broker-dealer CAT reporting teams
- — CAT technology and operations teams
- — CAT governance and finance teams
What to watch
- — SEC approval date: March 27, 2026
- — Estimated annual cost savings: $50 million to $70 million compared with the 2025 CAT budget
- — Data retention change: deletion of certain CAT data including data older than three years
- — Operational changes: lifecycle linkages, late-record re-processing, rejected-message reporting, targeted-query tool and anonymized customer identifiers
- — New control: spending-cap provision for future CAT changes