SEC Eases Rules on Stock Trade Data Sharing
Published Date: 2/14/2025
Notice
Summary
The SEC is giving some national stock exchanges and trading groups a break from certain rules in the big plan that tracks all stock trades (called the Consolidated Audit Trail or CAT). This change helps them adjust how they share and manage trade data without messing up the system. The update starts now and won’t cost extra money but makes the process smoother and smarter for everyone involved.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 2 costs, 0 mixed.
CAT stops storing names/addresses/birth years
If you have a brokerage or trading account, the SEC exempted the CAT from requiring the reporting of natural persons' names, addresses, and years of birth when those persons are reported with transformed SSNs or ITINs. The Order (issued February 10, 2025) grants relief from Section 6.4(d)(ii)(C) and Appendix D Sections 9.1, 9.2 and 9.4 of the CAT NMS Plan; broker-dealers must still report a transformed SSN/ITIN value and the Firm Designated ID (FDID).
Regulators must request PII from broker-dealers
Because names, addresses, and years of birth will not be stored in the CAT for natural persons with transformed SSNs/ITINs, regulators must contact broker-dealers and request that information when needed. The Commission notes this request-response approach will take additional time and manual steps, and broker-dealers will need to respond to such regulator requests.
Broker-dealers still must keep full customer PII
Broker-dealers remain required under existing books-and-records rules to collect and retain customers' names, full addresses, and full dates of birth and to verify that information periodically (e.g., at least every 36 months); they must provide that information to regulators upon request. The Order supplements prior PII relief but does not change those broker-dealer obligations.
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