Proposal to Strengthen Data Security in CAT
Summary
SIFMA provided comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the proposed amendments to the NMS plan governing the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). SIFMA supports enhanced security and data protection within the CAT, and outlines some minor enhancements it believes the SEC should consider in connection with finalizing the proposal, as they will help enhance the overall confidence of the investing public in the CAT, which will hold vast amounts of their data.
See related: SIFMA Supports Proposal to Strengthen Data Security in the Consolidated Audit Trail, Nov. 30, 2020
Excerpt
November 30, 2020
Vanessa Countryman
Secretary
Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549
Re: File No. S7-10-20; Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail to Enhance Data Security
Dear Ms. Countryman:
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”)1 respectfully submits this letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) to comment on the above-referenced proposed amendments (the “Proposal”) to the NMS plan governing the Consolidated Audit Trail (the “CAT NMS Plan” or “Plan”).2 The Proposal is designed to strengthen the security and protections for data in the Consolidated Audit Trail (“CAT”) and to limit the scope of sensitive information required to be collected by the CAT. 3 SIFMA has long supported the development of the CAT and believes that it will provide a critical market infrastructure resource for regulators to track equity and options trading activity across markets. At the same time, SIFMA has long been extremely concerned and vocal about the protection of CAT Data within the CAT System by the self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) as the developers and operators of the CAT.4 As we have noted, the value of the data within the system is immeasurable and the SROs have the responsibility to protect it along with the associated liability should the data be exposed. Overall, we believe that the Proposal represents a significant step forward by the Commission in holding the CAT to the highest security standards. We applaud the Commission for issuing it and support much of what is included in it. We nonetheless believe that there are certain minor enhancements, discussed below, that the Commission should consider in connection with finalizing the Proposal.