The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved amendments to the National Market System Plan, which manages the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) to implement cost-saving measures. Key changes allow switching certain data related to options market maker quotes to less costly storage, minimize processing requirements, and permit the deletion of industry test data after three months instead of retaining it for longer. These changes aim to reduce operational costs significantly, with estimates suggesting savings of approximately $21 million in the first year. While this may slightly reduce some regulatory efficiency in terms of data access and processing, regulators will still have access to the necessary data through alternative methods.
Simple Explanation
The SEC made a plan to save money by making changes to how they keep track of data from the stock market, like using cheaper places to store information and not keeping test data for a long time. This will help save a lot of money, but it might make finding the data a little harder for some people.