SEC Approves Funding Amendment to National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, recently issued a press statement in which it announces the approval of an amendment to the National Market System (NMS) Plan for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), introducing a new funding model called the „Executed Share Model“ to recover the costs for maintaining the CAT system. This model establishes a fee schedule for CAT fees for self-regulatory organizations participating in the CAT NMS Plan. The new model provides that fees of participants and industry members are „based on executed equivalent share volume“ which is calculated „based on whether securities being traded are NMS Stocks, Listed Options, and/or OTC Equity Securities, to account for differences in the trading characteristics of each of those securities“. Details on the calculation are outlined in the enclosed Fact Sheet.
Before CAT’s creation, regulators lacked a consolidated view of order information in NMS securities. The approved amendment outlines a framework for sharing the costs of creating, developing, and maintaining CAT among participants and members of national securities exchanges or associations. Once the „Executed Share Model“ is in place, participants will submit filings to impose fees on industry members, with details provided in those filings. The amendment is effective immediately upon SEC approval and will be published in the Federal Register.