Document ID: SEC-2020-0814-0001
Agency: sec
Document Type: Notice
Title: Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail
Posted Date: 2020-05-22T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 100 (Friday, May 22, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31322-31349]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10963]

[[Page 31321]]

Vol. 85

Friday,

No. 100

May 22, 2020

Part III

Securities and Exchange Commission

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 Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the 
Consolidated Audit Trail; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 100 / Friday, May 22, 2020 / 
Notices  

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release No. 34-88890; File No. S7-13-19]
RIN 3235-AM60

Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the 
Consolidated Audit Trail

AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission.

ACTION: Amendments to national market system plan.

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SUMMARY: The Securities and Exchange Commission is adopting amendments 
to the national market system plan governing the consolidated audit 
trail. The amendments impose public transparency requirements on the 
self-regulatory organizations that are participants in the plan. Under 
the amendments, plan participants are required to publish and file with 
the Securities and Exchange Commission a complete implementation plan 
for the consolidated audit trail and quarterly progress reports. The 
amendments also establish financial accountability provisions.

DATES: June 22, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Erika Berg, Special Counsel, at (202) 
551-5925, Division of Trading and Markets, Securities and Exchange 
Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission is adopting amendments to the 
national market system plan governing the consolidated audit trail.

Table of Contents

I. Background
II. Discussion of the Amendments to the CAT NMS Plan
    A. Amendments To Increase Operational Transparency
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    3. Additional Reports
    B. Amendments To Increase Financial Accountability
    1. Description of the Proposed Amendments
    2. Modifications to the Proposed Amendments
    3. Discussion of the Comments
III. Paperwork Reduction Act
    A. Summary of Collection of Information
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    B. Proposed Use of Information
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    C. Respondents
    D. Total Initial and Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burdens
    1. Implementation Plan
    2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    E. Collection of Information Is Mandatory
    F. Confidentiality of Responses to Collection of Information
    G. Retention Period for Recordkeeping Requirements
IV. Economic Analysis
    A. Baseline
    1. Transparency of CAT Implementation Status
    2. Status of Implementation
    B. Benefits
    C. Costs
    D. Impact on Efficiency, Competition, and Capital Formation
    1. Efficiency
    2. Competition
    3. Capital Formation
    E. Alternatives
    1. Fixed versus Relative Financial Accountability Milestone 
Dates
    2. Different Timelines for Onset of RFRRs
    3. Alternate Magnitudes of RFRRs
    4. Requiring Error Rates for Manual and Complex Options 
Transactions, as Well as Allocation Information for all Options 
Transactions To Conform to Standards Set in the CAT NMS Plan on 
December 31, 2021
V. Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification
VI. Other Matters
VII. Statutory Authority and Text of the Amendments to the CAT NMS 
Plan

I. Background

    On September 9, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission 
(``Commission'' or ``SEC'') proposed to amend the national market 
system plan governing the consolidated audit trail (the ``CAT NMS 
Plan'') \1\ to include provisions designed to increase operational 
transparency surrounding the implementation process and the 
Participants' financial accountability for the timely completion of the 
consolidated audit trail (the ``CAT'').\2\ Specifically, the Commission 
proposed to amend the CAT NMS Plan to require the Participants to 
develop a complete implementation plan containing a detailed timeline 
with objective milestones to achieve full CAT implementation (the 
``Implementation Plan''). The proposed amendments would require the 
Implementation Plan to be filed with the Commission and made publicly 
available after approval by a Supermajority Vote \3\ of the Operating 
Committee.\4\ Prior to the Operating Committee's vote, the proposal 
would require the Operating Committee to submit the Implementation Plan 
to the Chief Executive Officer (``CEO''), President, or an equivalently 
situated senior officer of each Participant. The proposed amendments 
would also require the Participants to file with the Commission

[[Page 31323]]

and publicly publish quarterly progress reports (``Quarterly Progress 
Reports'' or ``Reports'') approved by at least a Supermajority Vote of 
the Operating Committee. Again, prior to the Operating Committee's 
vote, the proposal would require the Operating Committee to submit each 
Report to the CEO, President, or an equivalently situated senior 
officer of each Participant. Finally, the proposed amendments would 
establish target deadlines for four important implementation milestones 
and reduce the amount of fee recovery available to the Participants if 
those target deadlines are missed.\5\
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    \1\ As required by Rule 613, the CAT NMS Plan was filed with the 
Commission by the national securities exchanges and national 
securities associations (the ``Participants''), who include BATS 
Exchange, Inc. (n/k/a Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.), BATS-Y Exchange, 
Inc. (n/k/a Cboe BYX Exchange, Inc.), BOX Exchange LLC, C2 Options 
Exchange, Incorporated (n/k/a Cboe C2 Exchange, Inc.), Chicago Board 
Options Exchange, Incorporated (n/k/a Cboe Exchange, Inc.), Chicago 
Stock Exchange, Inc. (n/k/a NYSE Chicago, Inc.), EDGA Exchange, Inc. 
(n/k/a Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc.), EDGX Exchange, Inc. (n/k/a Cboe 
EDGX Exchange, Inc.), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. 
(``FINRA''), International Securities Exchange, LLC (n/k/a Nasdaq 
ISE, LLC), ISE Gemini, LLC (n/k/a Nasdaq GEMX, LLC), Miami 
International Securities Exchange LLC, NASDAQ OMX BX, Inc. (n/k/a 
Nasdaq BX, Inc.), NASDAQ OMX PHLX LLC (n/k/a Nasdaq PHLX LLC), The 
Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, National Stock Exchange, Inc. (n/k/a NYSE 
National, Inc.), New York Stock Exchange LLC, NYSE MKT LLC, and NYSE 
Arca, Inc. See 17 CFR 242.613; Securities Exchange Act Release No. 
78318 (November 15, 2016), 81 FR 84696, (November 23, 2016) (``CAT 
NMS Plan Approval Order''). The CAT NMS Plan is Exhibit A to the CAT 
NMS Plan Approval Order. See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, at 84943-
85034. In approving the CAT NMS Plan, the Commission added ISE 
Mercury, LLC (n/k/a Nasdaq MRX, LLC) and Investors' Exchange LLC as 
Participants to the CAT NMS Plan. See id. at 84728. On January 30, 
2017, and March 1, 2019, the Commission noticed for immediate 
effectiveness amendments to the CAT NMS Plan to add MIAX PEARL, LLC 
and MIAX Emerald, LLC, respectively, as Participants. See Securities 
Exchange Act Release Nos. 79898 (January 30, 2017), 82 FR 9250 
(February 3, 2017), and 85230 (March 1, 2019), 84 FR 8356 (March 7, 
2019). The CAT NMS Plan functions as the limited liability company 
agreement of the jointly owned limited liability company formed 
under Delaware state law through which the Participants conduct the 
activities of the CAT (the ``Company''). Each Participant is a 
member of the Company and jointly owns the Company on an equal 
basis. The Participants submitted to the Commission a proposed 
amendment to the CAT NMS Plan on August 29, 2019, which they 
designated as effective on filing. Under the amendment, the limited 
liability company agreement of a new limited liability company named 
Consolidated Audit Trail, LLC serves as the CAT NMS Plan, replacing 
in its entirety the CAT NMS Plan. See Securities Exchange Act 
Release No. 87149 (September 27, 2019), 84 FR 52905 (October 3, 
2019). On November 27, 2019, the Commission noticed for immediate 
effectiveness amendments to the CAT NMS Plan to add Long-Term Stock 
Exchange, Inc. as a Participant. See Securities Exchange Act Release 
No. 87595 (November 22, 2019), 84 FR 65447 (November 27, 2019).
    \2\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 86901 (September 9, 
2019), 84 FR 48458 (September 13, 2019) (``Proposing Release'').
    \3\ A ``Supermajority Vote'' is an ``affirmative vote of at 
least two-thirds of all of the members of the Operating Committee or 
any Subcommittee, as applicable, authorized to cast a vote with 
respect to a matter presented for a vote (whether or not such a 
member is present at any meeting at which a vote is taken) by the 
Operating Committee or any Subcommittee, as applicable (excluding, 
for the avoidance of doubt, any member of the Operating Committee or 
any Subcommittee, as applicable, that is recused or subject to a 
vote to recuse from such matter pursuant to Section 4.3(d)); 
provided that if two-thirds of all such members authorized to cast a 
vote is not a whole number than that number shall be rounded up to 
the nearest whole number.'' See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at 
Section 1.1.
    \4\ ``Operating Committee'' means ``the governing body of the 
Company designated as such and described in Article IV'' of the CAT 
NMS Plan. See id. at Section 1.1.
    \5\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48461-74, for a more 
complete description of the proposed amendments.
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    In proposing the amendments to the CAT NMS Plan, the Commission 
stated that the Participants had neither met the deadlines set forth in 
the CAT NMS Plan nor their own proposed extensions of those 
deadlines.\6\ The Commission also stated that the Participants had 
published a timeline with extended deadlines on the www.catnmsplan.com 
website.\7\ Recently, the Commission granted the Participants exemptive 
relief to allow for the implementation of phased reporting to the CAT 
for Industry Members,\8\ in place of the reporting schedule set forth 
for Industry Members in the CAT NMS Plan.\9\ This exemptive relief is 
largely consistent with the timeline previously published by the 
Participants on the CAT NMS Plan website, with two modifications to 
deadlines for equities and options reporting. The Participants 
proposed, in their timeline and in their request for exemptive relief, 
that core equity reporting for Industry Members would begin on April 
20, 2020 and that core options reporting for Industry Members would 
begin on May 18, 2020.\10\ In light of impacts on market participants 
from COVID-19 and a subsequent no-action request submitted by the 
Participants,\11\ the Commission provided exemptive relief authorizing 
the Participants' Compliance Rules \12\ to allow core equity reporting 
for Industry Members to begin on June 22, 2020 and core options 
reporting for Industry Members to begin on July 20, 2020.\13\ While the 
Commission believes that the Participants' timeline for Industry Member 
reporting now reflects reasonable and feasible deadlines, the continued 
potential for delays to the implementation of the CAT persists. The CAT 
is a long-awaited tool that the Commission believes will provide 
regulators with more timely access to a reasonably comprehensive set of 
trading data, thereby enabling regulators to more efficiently and 
effectively reconstruct market events, monitor market behavior, and 
investigate misconduct. Trade and order data sources currently utilized 
by regulators are inadequate to perform these tasks, in part because it 
is difficult to compile and use data that is not aggregated in one, 
directly accessible consolidated audit trail system. Moreover, repeated 
delays in CAT implementation have resulted in uncertainty and--
potentially--increased costs for Industry Members and other market 
participants.
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    \6\ The CAT NMS Plan established deadlines related to the 
implementation of critical CAT functionality, including (1) the 
requirement that the Participants begin recording and reporting data 
by November 15, 2017, and (2) the requirement that each Participant 
require Industry Members and Small Industry Members to begin 
reporting data by November 15, 2018, and November 15, 2019, 
respectively. See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 6.7(a). The 
Participants requested an exemption extending these deadlines. The 
Commission did not grant this request. See, e.g., Statement on 
Status of the Consolidated Audit Trail (August 27, 2018), available 
at https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/tm-status-consolidated-audit-trail (stating that the Participants requested an exemption to 
commence Participant reporting on November 15, 2018, and Industry 
Member reporting on November 15, 2019). Although the Participants 
began reporting some transaction data to the Central Repository on 
November 15, 2018, the Participants acknowledged that not all of the 
required functionality had been implemented. See CAT NMS Announces 
Initiation of Reporting to the Consolidated Audit Trail (November 
16, 2018), available at https://www.catnmsplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Press-Release-CAT-Launch-final.pdf. See Proposing 
Release, supra note 2, at 48458-461 for additional discussion of the 
various deadlines missed by the Participants.
    \7\ See https://catnmsplan.com/timelines/ (stating that the 
Participants' timeline provides for commencement of reporting by 
Large Industry Members and Small Industry Members that are reporters 
to the Order Audit Trail System (``OATS'') on April 20, 2020) (as 
viewed on March 12, 2020).
    \8\ See Securities Exchange Act Release No. 88702 (April 20, 
2020), 85 FR 23075 (April 24, 2020) (``Exemptive Relief Order'').
    \9\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at 6.7(a).
    \10\ See note 8 supra.
    \11\ See id. at 23082 n.105.
    \12\ The CAT NMS Plan requires the Participants to ``endeavor to 
promulgate consistent rules (after taking into account circumstances 
and considerations that may impact Participants differently) 
requiring compliance by their respective Industry Members with the 
provisions of SEC Rule 613 and [the CAT NMS Plan].'' See CAT NMS 
Plan, supra note 1, at Section 3.11. ``Compliance Rule'' is a 
defined term under the CAT NMS Plan and means ``the rule(s) 
promulgated by such Participant as contemplated by Section 3.11.'' 
See id. at Section 1.1.
    \13\ See id. at 23082. The Participants stated that they plan to 
file revisions to their Compliance Rules consistent with their 
exemptive relief request. See id. at 23076 n.13.
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II. Discussion of the Amendments to the CAT NMS Plan

    After careful review and consideration of the comments 
received,\14\ the Commission continues to believe that the proposed 
amendments to the CAT NMS Plan, with some limited modifications, are 
necessary or appropriate in the public interest, for the protection of 
investors and the maintenance of fair and orderly markets, to remove 
impediments to, and perfect the mechanisms of, a national market 
system. The proposed amendments also will help to ensure that the 
Participants fulfill their obligations to deliver a functional CAT on a 
reasonably achievable timeframe. The Commission is therefore adopting 
the proposed amendments with the modifications specified herein.
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    \14\ See https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319.htm. Some 
of these letters included comments beyond the scope of the proposed 
amendments, suggesting changes to the CAT's governance, to the CAT's 
technical requirements, or to the CAT's collection of sensitive 
personal information (``PII''). See Letter from Thomas Tesauro, 
President, Fidelity Capital Markets, to Vanessa Countryman, 
Secretary, Commission, dated October 28, 2019 (``Fidelity Letter''), 
at 5, available at https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6357608-196387.pdf; Letter from Dennis M. Kelleher, President & CEO, 
and Lev Bagramian, Senior Securities Policy Advisor, Better Markets, 
Inc., to Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, Commission, dated October 
28, 2019 (``Better Markets Letter''), at 3, 6, 9-12, available at 
https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6355349-196250.pdf; 
Letter from Christopher A. Iacovella, Chief Executive Officer, 
American Securities Association, to Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, 
Commission, dated October 28, 2019 (``ASA Letter''), at 2, available 
at https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6381876-197754.pdf. 
Because these subjects are not directly related to the proposed 
amendments, they are not addressed in this rulemaking.
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A. Amendments To Increase Operational Transparency

    Currently, the CAT NMS Plan does not contain disclosure provisions 
that require the Participants to provide public updates regarding the 
CAT implementation process. The proposed amendments were designed to 
increase operational transparency by requiring the Participants to file 
with the Commission and make publicly available an Implementation Plan 
and Quarterly Progress Reports that would provide the Commission and 
other market participants with detailed and up-to-date information 
about the status of CAT implementation. Commenters were broadly 
supportive of these provisions, but some commenters requested that the 
Commission modify certain aspects of the proposed amendments. After 
considering these comments, and as described more fully below, the 
Commission is adopting the operational transparency amendments

[[Page 31324]]

as proposed, with certain modifications.\15\
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    \15\ See Part II.A.1.-2. infra, for a discussion of the 
modifications to the proposed amendments.
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1. Implementation Plan
    As proposed, Section 6.6(c)(i) of the CAT NMS Plan would require 
the Participants to file with the Commission and make publicly 
available on each of the Participant websites (or collectively on the 
CAT NMS Plan website) a complete Implementation Plan.\16\ The proposed 
Implementation Plan would set forth how and when the Participants will 
achieve full CAT implementation, including the Participants' timeline 
for achieving both the objective milestones that are set forth in 
Section C.10 of Appendix C of the CAT NMS Plan to assess the progress 
of CAT implementation \17\ (``Objective Milestones'') and the CAT 
implementation milestones associated with the proposed financial 
accountability provisions discussed below (``Financial Accountability 
Milestones'') \18\ (collectively, the ``Implementation 
Milestones'').\19\ Proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) would require the 
Implementation Plan to be filed with the Commission and published on 
each Participant website or the CAT NMS Plan website no later than 
thirty calendar days following the effective date of the proposed 
amendments.\20\
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    \16\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(i).
    \17\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Appendix C, Section 
C.10.
    \18\ The Financial Accountability Milestones, and their relation 
to the financial accountability provisions, are described in more 
detail in Part II.B. infra.
    \19\ The timeline required by proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) would 
include the completion date and a description of the status for each 
Implementation Milestone. If the Participants decide to complete any 
of the Implementation Milestones by releasing functionality in a 
phased approach, proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) would further require 
the Implementation Plan to describe with specificity each phased 
release necessary to achieve the completion of the relevant 
Implementation Milestone and to provide completion dates for each 
such release. See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48461-62, for 
additional discussion of the proposed Implementation Plan.
    \20\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(i).
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    Before the Implementation Plan can be filed with the Commission or 
made publicly available via a website, proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii) 
would require that the Implementation Plan be approved by at least a 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee. However, if the 
Implementation Plan is approved only by a Supermajority Vote of the 
Operating Committee, and not by a unanimous vote of the Operating 
Committee (including, for the avoidance of doubt, all members of the 
Operating Committee, whether or not present or recused), the proposed 
amendments would require each Participant whose Operating Committee 
member did not vote to approve the Implementation Plan to separately 
file with the Commission and make publicly available on each of the 
Participant websites, or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website, a 
statement identifying itself and explaining why the member did not vote 
to approve the Implementation Plan.\21\ In addition, the proposed 
amendments would require the Operating Committee to submit the 
Implementation Plan to the CEO, President, or an equivalently situated 
senior officer of each Participant prior to the Operating Committee's 
vote.\22\ The Commission anticipates that the Participants will provide 
the Implementation Plan to the CEO, President, or an equivalently 
situated senior officer of each Participant sufficiently in advance of 
the Operating Committee vote to permit review.\23\
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    \21\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii). The proposed amendments 
do not require this statement to include any confidential or 
sensitive information related to the security of the CAT, the 
security of CAT Data, or the operation of the CAT. The Participants 
must comply with the security plan developed by the Plan Processor 
pursuant to Appendix D, Section 4.1 of the CAT NMS Plan and any 
security-related policies and procedures developed pursuant to 
Regulation SCI. See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Appendix D, 
Section 4.1 (requiring the Plan Processor to provide to the 
Operating Committee a comprehensive security plan, including a 
process for responding to security incidents and reporting of such 
incidents); 17 CFR 242.1001 (requiring each SCI entity to establish, 
maintain, and enforce written policies and procedures reasonably 
designed to ensure that its SCI systems have levels of security 
adequate to maintain operational capabilities and promote the 
maintenance of fair and orderly markets).
    \22\ See id.; see also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 
48464, for additional discussion of these requirements. No 
commenters objected to these requirements, and one commenter stated 
that there was no need to ``go further to require such CEOs, 
Presidents and equivalent officers to certify'' the Implementation 
Plan, ``an issue raised for comment in the Proposing Release.'' See 
Letter from Michael Simon, CAT NMS Plan Operating Committee Chair, 
to Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, Commission, dated October 28, 2019 
(``Participant Letter''), at 7, available at https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6357609-196389.pdf; see also Proposing 
Release, supra note 2, at 48465. The Commission is not adopting a 
certification requirement for the Implementation Plan.
    \23\ See, e.g., Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48476 n.143.
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    The Commission believes that requiring public disclosure regarding 
the progress of CAT implementation through the Implementation Plan will 
help to ensure that the CAT is developed on a reasonable timeline. 
Several commenters expressed general support for the increased 
operational transparency that would be provided by the Implementation 
Plan. One commenter, for example, stated that ``the proposed 
Implementation Plan is appropriate to facilitate public transparency of 
the development and implementation milestones required to be achieved 
by the Participants and industry members tasked with CAT 
implementation'' and asserted that ``the filing of an Implementation 
Plan with the Commission may inject additional accountability and 
transparency into the Participants['] CAT milestone delivery targets.'' 
\24\ Another commenter ``agree[d] with the Commission that requiring 
the CAT NMS to create and publicize a detailed timeline with concrete 
deadlines (as set in the Proposal) would prod the [CAT NMS, LLC] 
consortium and the new Plan Processor, FINRA CAT, to progress towards 
implementation.'' \25\
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    \24\ See Letter from Christopher Bok, Director, Financial 
Information Forum, to Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, Commission, 
dated October 28, 2019 (``FIF Letter''), at 4-5 available at https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6355358-196251.pdf. See also, 
e.g., Letter from Theodore R. Lazo, Managing Director & Associate 
General Counsel, and Ellen Greene, Managing Director, Financial 
Services Operations, Securities Industry and Financial Markets 
Association, to Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, Commission, dated 
October 28, 2019 (``SIFMA Letter''), at 1, available at https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-13-19/s71319-6366765-195937.pdf (supporting 
the ``Commission'[s] actions to . . . increase transparency around 
[the] CAT implementation process''); Fidelity Letter, at 3 
(supporting ``the Proposal's operational transparency requirements 
to formalize and publicly document CAT implementation progress'').
    \25\ See Better Markets Letter, at 6. ``Plan Processor'' means 
``the Initial Plan Processor or any other Person selected by the 
Operating Committee pursuant to SEC Rule 613 and Sections 4.3(b)(i) 
and 6.1, and with regard to the Initial Plan Processor, the 
Selection Plan, to perform the CAT processing functions required by 
SEC Rule 613 and set forth in this Agreement.'' See CAT NMS Plan, 
supra note 1, at Section 1.1. As explained in the Proposing Release, 
Thesys Technologies LLC (or ``Thesys CAT LLC'') was initially 
selected as the Plan Processor, but was replaced by FINRA (``FINRA 
CAT LLC'') on February 26, 2019. See Proposing Release, supra note 
2, at 48459-460.
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    Some commenters had more specific comments regarding the proposed 
provisions relating to the Implementation Plan. For instance, regarding 
the deadline for submitting the Implementation Plan, the Participants 
stated that they had already ``developed a timeline for the completion 
of the CAT, and therefore believe[d] that 30 days is sufficient to file 
with the Commission and publish the Implementation Plan.'' \26\ No 
other commenters addressed this issue. Consistent with the Proposing 
Release and the views expressed by the Participants, the Commission 
continues to believe that thirty calendar days is a sufficient amount 
of time for the

[[Page 31325]]

Participants to develop, file, and publish the Implementation Plan.
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    \26\ See Participant Letter, at 6.
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    Regarding the Objective Milestones, the Participants 
``confirm[ed]'' that the Objective Milestones ``effectively formalize 
the status updates and other informal reports that are in the Updated 
Master Plan'' submitted to the Commission on May 16, 2019.\27\ The 
Participants further stated that ``basing the objective milestones on 
the Updated Master Plan is more appropriate than basing them on 
arbitrary milestones or milestones that have not been vetted by the 
Participants.'' \28\ However, the Objective Milestones are not based on 
the Updated Master Plan. Rather, the Objective Milestones are set forth 
in the CAT NMS Plan and provide details and required completion dates 
for a series of objective CAT implementation milestones, including 
implementation milestones relating to technical specifications, 
testing, and production.\29\
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    \27\ See Participant Letter, at 5.
    \28\ See id.
    \29\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Appendix C, Section 
C.10.
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    Another commenter suggested that the Commission should require the 
Implementation Plan to be ``prominently publicized on the CAT NMS's 
website.'' \30\ The Commission agrees that the CAT NMS Plan website 
would be a logical place to publish the Implementation Plan, and this 
is a permissible approach under proposed Section 6.6(c)(i).\31\ 
However, the information contained in the Implementation Plan will be 
just as accessible to the public if published on each Participants' 
website--another approach permitted by proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) as 
long as the required information is published by the timeframe set 
forth in the rule, and one that provides each Participant with more 
flexibility and control over how and when it complies with the proposed 
amendments.
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    \30\ See Better Markets Letter, at 7. This commenter also 
thought it ``would be beneficial if the SEC also creates a 
`Spotlight' web page . . . and host this timeline along with all 
other CAT related filings, notices, and Commission actions,'' 
because a ``one-stop web page should enable investors, market 
participants, journalists, Members of Congress, and all other 
interested parties, to remain informed of the progress, or lack 
thereof, of the CAT's implementation.'' See id. The Commission notes 
that such a page already exists: https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/rule613-info.htm. As appropriate, the Commission will 
continue to update this page as the information required by the 
amendments is published by the Participants.
    \31\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(i).
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    For these reasons, and the reasons set forth in the Proposing 
Release,\32\ the Commission is adopting the provisions related to the 
Implementation Plan substantially as proposed. However, the Commission 
believes it is appropriate to make two modifications to clarify the 
intended operation of the amendments.
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    \32\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48461-62, 48464.
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    First, the Commission is modifying language in proposed Section 
6.6(c)(i) to clarify the public disclosure requirements of the 
operational transparency amendments. In the Proposing Release, the 
Commission indicated that the Participants would be required to make 
the Implementation Plan available either individually on ``each of the 
Participant websites'' or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website. To 
the extent that the Participants choose to publish the Implementation 
Plan and Quarterly Progress Reports individually, each Participant is 
responsible for posting these materials on its own website, and each 
Participant is responsible for posting the materials in a timely 
manner. Accordingly, the Commission is modifying the phrasing of 
proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) to state that the Participants shall make 
the Implementation Plan publicly available on ``each of their 
websites'' or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website.
    Second, the Commission is modifying proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii) to 
clarify which Participants are required to publish statements that 
explain why a particular member of the Operating Committee did not vote 
to approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Reports. As 
proposed, Section 6.6(c)(iii) stated that ``each Participant whose 
Operating Committee member did not vote to approve the Implementation 
Plan or Quarterly Progress Report shall separately file with the 
Commission and make publicly available on each of the Participant 
websites, or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website, a statement 
identifying itself and explaining why the member did not vote to 
approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Report.'' \33\ 
The Commission is modifying this language to clarify that each 
Participant who dissents is not required to make publicly available its 
explanatory statements on other Participants' websites. If the 
Participants choose to not publish such explanatory statements 
collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website, the Participants with 
dissenting members will only be required to publish such statements on 
their own websites. Accordingly, the Commission is modifying the 
amendments to specify that ``each Participant whose Operating Committee 
member did not vote to approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly 
Progress Report shall separately file with the Commission a statement 
identifying itself and explaining why the member did not vote to 
approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Report. These 
statements shall be made publicly available by each dissenting 
Participant on its website or collectively by all Participants on the 
CAT NMS Plan website.''
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    \33\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii).
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2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    As proposed, Section 6.6(c)(ii) of the CAT NMS Plan would require 
the Participants to file with the Commission and make publicly 
available on each of the Participant websites (or collectively on the 
CAT NMS Plan website) complete Quarterly Progress Reports providing a 
detailed description of the progress made by the Participants toward 
achieving each of the Implementation Milestones set forth in the 
Implementation Plan.\34\ The proposed amendments describe the 
information that would be required to be included in the Quarterly 
Progress Reports.
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    \34\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii). If, subsequent to the 
publication of the Implementation Plan, the Participants decide to 
complete any of the Implementation Milestones by releasing 
functionality in a phased approach, the proposed amendments would 
require each Quarterly Progress Report to reflect this change by 
describing the phases necessary to achieve the completion of the 
relevant milestone and providing the information specified by 
proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii) for each phase. See id.
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    Specifically, for Implementation Milestones that have been 
completed by the end of a given calendar quarter, the proposed 
amendments would require the inclusion of the following information: 
(1) The completion date provided in the Implementation Plan, (2) the 
date on which the Implementation Milestone was actually completed, and 
(3) a description of any variance from the Implementation Plan.\35\ For 
Implementation Milestones that are in progress at the end of a given 
calendar quarter, the proposed amendments would require the inclusion 
of the following information: (1) The completion date provided in the 
Implementation Plan, (2) the currently targeted completion date, and 
(3) a description of (a) the current status of the Implementation 
Milestone, (b) any difference between the Implementation Plan 
completion date and the currently targeted completion date, including 
the basis for making the adjustment and the impact of this adjustment 
on any other Implementation Milestone, and (c) any

[[Page 31326]]

other factual indicators that demonstrate the current level of 
completion with respect to the Implementation Milestone.\36\ For 
Implementation Milestones that have not yet been initiated by the end 
of a given calendar quarter, the proposed amendments would require the 
inclusion of the following information: (1) The completion date 
provided in the Implementation Plan, (2) the currently targeted 
completion date, and (3) a description of (a) the current status of the 
Implementation Milestone, and (b) any difference between the 
Implementation Plan completion date and the currently targeted 
completion date, including the basis for making the adjustment and the 
impact of this adjustment on any other Implementation Milestone.\37\
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    \35\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii)(A).
    \36\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii)(B); see also Proposing 
Release, supra note 2, at 48463, for examples of factual indicators 
that would satisfy this requirement. As noted below, the Commission 
does not believe that the inclusion of factual indicators requires 
the Participants to publicly disclose any confidential or sensitive 
information related to the security of the CAT, the security of CAT 
Data, or the operation of the CAT. See notes 54-61 and associated 
text infra, for further discussion.
    \37\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii)(C); see also Proposing 
Release, supra note 2, at 48462-64, for additional discussion of 
these requirements.
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    Proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii) would require the initial Quarterly 
Progress Report to be filed and made public no later than fifteen 
business days following the end of the calendar quarter in which the 
Implementation Plan was filed and made public. Subsequent Reports would 
be required to be filed and made public no later than fifteen business 
days following the end of each calendar quarter.\38\ Before any 
Quarterly Progress Report can be filed with the Commission or made 
publicly available via a website, proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii) would 
require that the Report be approved by at least a Supermajority Vote of 
the Operating Committee. However, if the Report is approved only by a 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee, and not by a unanimous 
vote of the Operating Committee (including, for the avoidance of doubt, 
all members of the Operating Committee, whether or not present or 
recused), the proposed amendments would require each Participant whose 
Operating Committee member did not vote to approve the Report to 
separately file with the Commission and make publicly available on each 
of the Participant websites, or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan 
website, a statement identifying itself and explaining why the member 
did not vote to approve the Report.\39\ In addition, the proposed 
amendments would require the Operating Committee to submit the 
Quarterly Progress Report to the CEO, President, or an equivalently 
situated senior officer of each Participant prior to the Operating 
Committee's vote.\40\ The Commission anticipates that the Participants 
will provide the Quarterly Progress Report to the CEO, President, or an 
equivalently situated senior officer of each Participant sufficiently 
in advance of the Operating Committee vote to permit review.\41\
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    \38\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii).
    \39\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii). The proposed amendments 
do not require this statement to include any confidential or 
sensitive information related to the security of the CAT, the 
security of CAT Data, or the operation of the CAT. Moreover, the 
Participants must comply with the security plan developed by the 
Plan Processor pursuant to Appendix D, Section 4.1 of the CAT NMS 
Plan and any security-related policies and procedures developed 
pursuant to Regulation SCI. See note 21 supra.
    \40\ See id.; see also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 
48464, for additional discussion of these requirements. No 
commenters objected to these requirements, and one commenter 
asserted that there was no need to ``go further to require such 
CEOs, Presidents and equivalent officers to certify'' the Reports, 
``an issue raised for comment in the Proposing Release.'' See 
Participant Letter, at 7; see also Proposing Release, supra note 2, 
at 48465. The Commission is not adopting a certification requirement 
for the Reports.
    \41\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48477 n.159.
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    The Commission believes that requiring detailed and up-to-date 
public disclosure through the proposed Quarterly Progress Reports will 
furnish the Commission and market participants with a better 
understanding of the progress made by the Participants towards CAT 
implementation.\42\ The Participants stated in their comment letter 
that the proposed Reports ``would impose requirements that are . . . 
unnecessary,'' because ``CAT LLC and FINRA CAT currently provide and 
will continue to provide Industry Members and the general public with 
extensive and appropriate information related to the progress of the 
CAT System build'' and because ``the Commission and its staff . . . 
have continued access to extensive information regarding the CAT.'' 
\43\
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    \42\ As discussed above, some commenters suggested that 
requiring the Participants to publish the Implementation Plan would 
increase the Participants' accountability for meeting the deadlines 
specified in that document. See notes 24-25 and associated text 
supra. The Commission agrees and anticipates that requiring the 
Participants to publish Quarterly Progress Reports will have a 
similar effect.
    \43\ See Participant Letter, at 6-7.
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    The Commission, however, disagrees. While the Participants have 
provided information regarding CAT implementation to the Commission, 
much of the information provided by the Participants to the Commission 
has not been shared widely with the public. One commenter asserted that 
``not much is publicly known [about] why the CAT is still not up and 
running,'' due to the ``secrecy of the CAT NMS consortium'' and the 
current lack of transparency.\44\ This commenter ``agree[d] with the 
Commission that quarterly detailed reporting is appropriate and would 
provide useful information to all interested parties,'' including ``an 
early-warning to the Commission and interested-parties about possible 
upcoming failures to meet any of the regulatory milestones . . . . '' 
\45\ Another Industry Member commenter similarly believed that the 
Quarterly Progress Reports would ``provide us more information on the 
timing of our CAT reporting obligations, which should help us more 
efficiently develop and implement regulatory data collection systems, 
adjusting as needed, as well as monitor and better understand the 
progress of overall CAT implementation.'' \46\ The Commission agrees 
with these comments, and, consistent with the Proposing Release, 
continues to believe that the Quarterly Progress Reports will provide 
useful information to market participants and other members of the 
public.\47\
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    \44\ See Better Markets Letter, at 4.
    \45\ See id. at 7.
    \46\ See Fidelity Letter, at 3. See also FIF Letter, at 3 
(stating that ``additional transparency will better inform all 
stakeholders of the status of CAT implementation objectives and 
milestones, will reduce uncertainty, and will provide industry 
members with further assurances that full CAT implementation will 
occur on specified milestones'').
    \47\ In addition to providing market participants with 
information regarding Industry Member reporting deadlines, the 
Quarterly Progress Reports will also include the disclosure of 
information regarding the implementation of Participant reporting to 
the CAT and the availability of functionality for regulatory users, 
which the Participants have not made publicly available up to this 
point.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    One Industry Member commenter not only supported the disclosures 
required by the proposed Quarterly Progress Reports, but also 
recommended expanding the Reports to include ``financial information 
detailing the fees, costs and expenses that the Participants have 
incurred to build and implement the CAT,'' which should be ``clearly 
tied to the relevant Financial Accountability Milestone'' in the 
Reports.\48\ The commenter believed that such information would ``help 
Industry Members better understand the universe of costs they might be 
asked to pay at

[[Page 31327]]

a future date as well as how those costs relate to each Financial 
Accountability Milestone,'' as well as help Industry Members to 
``review and comment on individual CAT fee proposals submitted by the 
Plan Participants.'' \49\ To the extent that the Participants seek to 
recover the fees, costs, and expenses incurred in connection with the 
development, implementation, and operation of the CAT, the Commission 
believes that relevant information would be included in fee 
filings.\50\ Also, fee filings relating to fees incurred after the 
effective date of these amendments must clearly indicate to which 
Financial Accountability Milestone the fees are related.\51\ All fee 
filings with this information would be filed with and published by the 
Commission to provide notice to Industry Members and to solicit 
comments from market participants.\52\ In addition, the CAT NMS Plan 
requires the Participants to publish annual audited financial 
statements,\53\ which should also provide more detailed financial 
information to market participants. Therefore, the Commission does not 
believe that expanding the Quarterly Progress Reports to require this 
additional information is necessary.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \48\ See Fidelity Letter, at 3-4. The commenter suggested that 
such information could be ``disclosed on a one quarter lagging 
basis.'' See id. at 3 n.4.
    \49\ See id. at 4.
    \50\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48465, for a 
discussion of the fee filings that the Participants are required to 
submit in order to recover CAT-related fees, costs, and expenses 
from Industry Members. See also 15 U.S.C. 78s(b).
    \51\ See note 88 and associated text infra, for a discussion of 
the information that the Participants would be required to include 
in these fee filings under the amendments.
    \52\ See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. 78s; 17 CFR 242.608.
    \53\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 9.2(a). See also 
https://catnmsplan.com/announcements/audited-financial-statements 
(noting that audited financial statements for the Company from 
inception through 2018 are available upon request).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Participants also objected to some of the specific disclosures 
required by the proposed Quarterly Progress Report, claiming that the 
proposed Reports would ``impose requirements that are . . . at odds 
with maintaining the security of the CAT.'' \54\ For example, the 
Participants stated that ``requiring the broad publication of detailed 
explanations related to connectivity and acceptance testing . . . might 
provide information to unscrupulous persons set on finding a way to 
access and exploit information in the CAT.'' Similarly, they expressed 
concern that ``[p]ublishing pass/fail percentages of test cases and 
information with respect to defects remediated in connection with 
reporting milestones, and the reasons that certain documentation under 
development has not been completed,'' was inappropriate for security 
reasons, although they did concede that it was ``appropriate to provide 
such information to the Commission and the staff . . . .'' \55\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \54\ See Participant Letter, at 6.
    \55\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission takes concerns regarding the security of the CAT 
very seriously and agrees that the Participants should not include 
details in the Quarterly Progress Reports that would reveal any 
sensitive security information related to the CAT.\56\ However, the 
Commission does not believe that the proposed amendments, or the 
examples raised by the Participants in their comment letter, implicate 
any such concerns. The examples raised by the Participants as 
presenting security concerns are examples provided by the Commission in 
the Proposing Release of factual indicators that could be used to 
demonstrate the current status of CAT implementation.\57\ These factual 
indicators focused on functional requirements (e.g., enabling Industry 
Member reporting), as opposed to security requirements, that would 
capture the scope and quality of the Participants' progress in 
implementing the CAT. The Commission does not believe that the factual 
indicators suggested in the Proposing Release require the disclosure of 
information that will affect the security of the CAT.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \56\ See notes 21, 39 supra.
    \57\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48463.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For example, the Commission suggested in the Proposing Release that 
factual indicators for milestones related to connectivity and 
acceptance testing could include: ``the status of the publication of 
test plans; statistics on the amount of expected or actual activity in 
the test environment (e.g., number of testers, number of reportable 
events, error rates/trends observed); the number of Plan Processor 
functional requirements for which defects were found categorized by 
criticality; [and] progress remediating defects . . . .'' \58\ These 
factual indicators speak solely to the Participants' progress in 
developing a usable data reporting system. The inclusion of such 
factual indicators in a Quarterly Progress Report would not require the 
Participants to specifically identify each defect and explain what 
steps have been taken to remedy that particular defect; rather, the 
amendments permit data regarding defects to be disclosed in an 
aggregated form with a non-specific explanation of progress made 
towards remediating defects.\59\ The Commission does not believe that 
such disclosures present a security concern, because they will only 
provide information regarding the progress made towards implementing 
required CAT functionality without revealing any security-related 
information.\60\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \58\ See id.
    \59\ For the same reasons, the Commission does not believe that 
publication of aggregated pass/fail percentages for test cases 
associated with reporting milestones, or disclosure of the 
aggregated number and percentage of functional reporting 
requirements that have completed internal testing with all defects 
remediated, presents a security risk to the CAT. These factual 
indicators do not require the Participants to disclose details 
regarding the vulnerabilities or flaws of the CAT that could be 
exploited by bad actors. Likewise, the Commission does not believe 
that the publication of the ``reasons that certain documentation 
under development has not been completed'' presents a security 
concern. This suggested factual indicator relates solely to the 
development of technical specifications--documentation that is 
already public and that does not relate to any security policies or 
procedures. The Commission therefore does not believe this factual 
indicator raises any security concerns.
    \60\ Moreover, the Plan Processor has already begun to release 
similar information to the public, which demonstrates that the 
factual indicators suggested by the Commission can be published 
without implicating security concerns. See, e.g., Industry Test 
Release Status, available at https://www.catnmsplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1.21.20-Industry-Webinar-Industry-Test-Release-Checkpoint.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As stated in the Proposing Release, the Commission does not believe 
that the proposed amendments require the Participants to publicly 
disclose any confidential or sensitive information related to the 
security of the CAT, the security of CAT Data, or the operation of the 
CAT.\61\ Rather, the proposed amendments require only the disclosure of 
information related to and demonstrating the progress of the 
Participants in developing CAT functionality (e.g., pass/fail 
percentages of test cases relating to reporting functionality, not 
pass/fail rates relating to the development of security tools and 
security-related test cases), and the Commission does not believe that 
such disclosures impact the security of the CAT. The Commission is 
therefore adopting the disclosure requirements for the Quarterly 
Progress Reports as proposed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \61\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48461 n.42.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Participants stated that the proposed ``fifteen day-
turnaround period'' was too brief and suggested ``modifying the 
proposal to require the filing and posting of the Quarterly Progress 
Report[s] no later than 30 days after the end of each quarter.'' \62\ 
To respond to this comment, the Commission is modifying its proposed 
rule to require: (1) That the initial Quarterly Progress Report be 
filed with

[[Page 31328]]

the Commission and made publicly available no later than thirty 
calendar days after the end of the calendar quarter in which the 
Implementation Plan was filed and made publicly available; \63\ and (2) 
that each subsequent Quarterly Progress Report be filed with the 
Commission and made publicly available no later than thirty calendar 
days after the end of each calendar quarter (e.g., October 30, 2020; 
January 30, 2021; April 30, 2021; or July 30, 2021).\64\ The Commission 
believes this change will help to ensure that the Participants have 
sufficient time to prepare, file, and publish high-quality Reports, 
while still providing the Commission and market participants with 
timely and up-to-date disclosures regarding the process of CAT 
implementation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \62\ See Participant Letter, at 7.
    \63\ For example, if the Participants filed and made public the 
Implementation Plan on August 15, 2020, the initial Quarterly 
Progress Report would have to be filed no later than October 30, 
2020. See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48462 n.57.
    \64\ This change will provide the Participants with 
approximately eight or nine additional days, on average, to prepare, 
file, and publish each Report. See id. at 48462.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For these reasons, and the reasons set forth in the Proposing 
Release,\65\ the Commission is adopting the provisions related to the 
Quarterly Progress Reports substantially as proposed, except that 
proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii) will provide the Participants with 
additional time to prepare, file, and publish the Quarterly Progress 
Reports as described above. In addition, the Commission is adopting 
three modifications to proposed Section 6.6(c) to clarify the intended 
operation of the amendments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \65\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48462-64.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    First, the Commission is modifying language in proposed Section 
6.6(c)(ii) to clarify the public disclosure requirements of the 
operational transparency amendments. In the Proposing Release, the 
Commission indicated that the Participants would be required to make 
the Quarterly Progress Reports available either individually on ``each 
of the Participant websites'' or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan 
website. To the extent that the Participants choose to publish the 
Quarterly Progress Reports individually, each Participant is 
responsible for posting these materials on its own website, and each 
Participant is responsible for posting the materials in a timely 
manner. Accordingly, the Commission is modifying the phrasing of 
proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii) to state that the Participants shall make 
the Quarterly Progress Reports publicly available on ``each of their 
websites'' or collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website.
    Second, the Commission is modifying proposed Section 6.6(c)(iii) to 
specify that ``each Participant whose Operating Committee member did 
not vote to approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress 
Report shall separately file with the Commission a statement 
identifying itself and explaining why the member did not vote to 
approve the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Report. These 
statements shall be made publicly available by each dissenting 
Participant on its website or collectively by all Participants on the 
CAT NMS Plan website.'' \66\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \66\ See Part II.A.1. supra, for further discussion of this 
modification.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Commission is modifying the final sentence of proposed 
Section 6.6(c)(ii) to clarify which parties are obligated to file and 
make publicly available the Quarterly Progress Reports. The proposed 
amendments stated that the ``first of such reports shall be filed and 
made publicly available within 30 calendar days after the end of the 
calendar quarter in which the Implementation Plan was filed and made 
publicly available.'' \67\ The Commission is not changing this 
obligation, but is modifying the language to state that the 
``Participants shall file and make publicly available the first of such 
reports within 30 calendar days after the end of the calendar quarter 
in which the Participants filed and made publicly available the 
Implementation Plan.'' \68\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \67\ See proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii).
    \68\ These three modifications do not affect the cost estimates 
put forward by the Commission in the Proposing Release. See, e.g., 
Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48475-77.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Additional Reports
    The proposed amendments require that the Participants prepare, 
file, and publish an Implementation Plan for the completion of CAT 
implementation \69\ and that the Quarterly Progress Reports provide up-
to-date information regarding the Implementation Milestones set forth 
in the Implementation Plan. By these terms, the proposed amendments do 
not require the Participants to continue any reporting after the CAT 
has been implemented.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \69\ Specifically, proposed Section 6.6(c)(i) requires that the 
Implementation Plan include a timeline for achieving Full 
Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements, which is a Financial 
Accountability Milestone that requires the Participants to ``have 
satisfied all of their obligations to build and implement the CAT, 
such that all CAT system functionality required by Rule 613 and the 
CAT NMS Plan has been developed, successfully tested, and fully 
implemented at the initial Error Rates specified by Section 
6.5(d)(i) or less . . . .'' See proposed Section 1.1, ``Full 
Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements.'' ``Error Rate'' is a 
defined term in the CAT NMS Plan and has the same definition in this 
release.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    One commenter ``urge[d] the Commission to require the same timeline 
publication and quarterly reports on progress to apply beyond just the 
implementation phase.'' \70\ This commenter believed that ``[t]he same 
transparency requirements would be useful when the CAT NMS establishes 
upgrades schedules.'' \71\ The Commission believes that requiring 
additional reporting is unnecessary at this point. Once the CAT is 
fully implemented, market participants will continue to receive 
information regarding the operation of the CAT through audited 
financial statements published by the Participants \72\ and CAT-related 
proposals filed with and published by the Commission.\73\ The 
Commission is not requiring additional reporting, but encourages the 
Participants to communicate fully with affected market participants 
regarding any ``upgrades schedules.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \70\ See Better Markets Letter, at 7.
    \71\ See id.
    \72\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 9.2(a).
    \73\ See 15 U.S.C. 78s; 17 CFR 242.608.
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B. Amendments To Increase Financial Accountability

    Currently, the CAT NMS Plan contemplates that the Operating 
Committee will establish, and the Participants will implement, fees for 
both Participants and Industry Members to recover the costs and 
expenses incurred by the Participants in connection with the 
development and implementation of the CAT.\74\ The proposed amendments 
were designed to increase the financial accountability of the 
Participants by establishing target deadlines for four critical 
implementation milestones and reducing the amount of fee recovery that 
would be available to the Participants if those target deadlines are 
missed. Some commenters agreed that the proposed amendments would 
reduce the likelihood of further delays to CAT implementation, but all 
commenters urged the Commission to incorporate certain modifications to 
the proposal. After considering these comments, and as described more 
fully below, the Commission is adopting the financial accountability 
amendments with certain modifications from the amendments as proposed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \74\ See, e.g., CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 11.1(c).

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[[Page 31329]]

1. Description of the Proposed Amendments
    Proposals for any fees established by the Operating Committee, and 
implemented by the Participants, to recover from Industry Members the 
costs and expenses incurred by the Participants in connection with the 
development and implementation of the CAT must be filed with the 
Commission and are subject to Commission review for consistency with 
the Exchange Act and Article XI of the CAT NMS Plan.\75\ Specifically, 
each Participant must demonstrate, under Sections 6(b)(4) and 15A(b)(5) 
of the Exchange Act, that such fees result in an equitable allocation 
of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges among its members and other 
persons using its facilities.\76\ The proposed amendments would not 
alter this basic structure, but add a new Section 11.6 to the CAT NMS 
Plan to govern the recovery of any fees, costs, and expenses (including 
legal and consulting fees, costs, and expenses) incurred by or for the 
Company in connection with the development, implementation, and 
operation of the CAT, from the effective date of this amendment, until 
such time that the Participants have completed Full Implementation of 
CAT NMS Plan Requirements \77\ (collectively, the ``Post-Amendment 
Expenses'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \75\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b); 17 CFR 242.608. See also CAT NMS Plan, 
supra note 1, at Section 11.1(b) (stating that the Participants must 
file proposed fees for Industry Members with the Commission); id. at 
Section 11.2(a) (stating that the Operating Committee shall seek to 
create transparent, predictable revenue streams for the Company that 
are aligned with the anticipated costs to build, operate, and 
administer the CAT and the other costs of the Company).
    \76\ See 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4) (applicable to the national 
securities exchanges); 15 U.S.C. 78o-3(b)(5) (applicable to FINRA, a 
national securities association).
    \77\ See note 69 supra.
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    Proposed Section 11.6 would require the Participants to meet four 
Financial Accountability Milestones by certain dates in order to 
collect the full amount of any fees established by the Operating 
Committee, or implemented by the Participants, to recover Post-
Amendment Expenses from Industry Members (``Post-Amendment Industry 
Member Fees''). Specifically, the proposed Financial Accountability 
Milestones and target deadlines were: (1) Initial Industry Member Core 
Equity Reporting, April 30, 2020 \78\; (2) Full Implementation of Core 
Equity Reporting, December 31, 2020 \79\; (3) Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality \80\; 
and (4) Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements.\81\ Under the 
proposed amendments, each Financial Accountability Milestone would be 
considered complete as of the date identified in a published Quarterly 
Progress Report meeting the requirements of proposed Section 
6.6(c).\82\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \78\ Under the proposed amendments, Initial Industry Member Core 
Equity Reporting was defined as ``the point at which Industry 
Members (excluding Small Industry Members that are not OATS 
reporters) have begun to report equities transaction data, excluding 
Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying 
Information, to the CAT.''
    \79\ Under the proposed amendments, Full Implementation of Core 
Equity Reporting was defined as ``the point at which: (a) Industry 
Member reporting (excluding reporting by Small Industry Members that 
are not OATS reporters) for equities transactions, excluding 
Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying 
Information, is developed, tested, and implemented at a 5 [percent] 
Error Rate or less and with sufficient intra-firm linkage, inter-
firm linkage, national securities exchange linkage, and trade 
reporting facilities linkage to permit the Participants and the 
Commission to analyze the full lifecycle of an order across the 
national market system, excluding linkage of representative orders, 
from order origination through order execution or order 
cancellation; and (b) the query tool functionality required by 
Section 6.10(c)(i)(A) and Appendix D, Sections 8.1.1 [through] 8.1.3 
and Section 8.2.1 incorporates the Industry Member equities 
transaction data described in condition (a) and is available to the 
Participants and to the Commission.''
    \80\ Under the proposed amendments, Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality was 
defined as ``the point at which: (a) Reporting to the Order Audit 
Trail System is no longer required for new orders; (b) Industry 
Member reporting for equities transactions, simple electronic 
options transactions, manual options transactions, and complex 
options transactions, including Allocation Reports, but excluding 
Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying 
Information, is developed, tested, and implemented; (c) 
representative order linkages, as well as intra-firm linkages, 
inter-firm linkages, national securities exchange linkages, and 
trade reporting facilities linkages, are developed, tested, and 
implemented in a manner that permits the Participants and the 
Commission to analyze the full lifecycle of an order across the 
national market system, from order origination through order 
execution or order cancellation, including any related allocation 
information provided in an Allocation Report; (d) CAT Error Rates 
satisfy the threshold specified by Section 6.5(d)(i); (e) the query 
tool functionality required by Section 6.10(c)(i)(A) and Appendix D, 
Sections 8.1.1 [through] 8.1.3, Section 8.2.1, and Section 8.5 
incorporates the data described in conditions (b) and (c) and is 
available to the Participants and to the Commission; and (f) the 
requirements of Section 6.10(a) are met.''
    \81\ Under the proposed amendments, Full Implementation of CAT 
NMS Plan Requirements was defined as ``the point at which the 
Participants have satisfied all of their obligations to build and 
implement the CAT, such that all CAT system functionality required 
by Rule 613 and the CAT NMS Plan has been developed, successfully 
tested, and fully implemented at the initial Error Rates specified 
by Section 6.5(d)(i) or less, including functionality that 
efficiently permits the Participants and the Commission to access 
all CAT Data required to be stored in the Central Repository 
pursuant to Section 6.5(a), including Customer Account Information, 
Customer-ID, Customer Identifying Information, and Allocation 
Reports, and to analyze the full lifecycle of an order across the 
national market system, from order origination through order 
execution or order cancellation, including any related allocation 
information provided in an Allocation Report.'' See also Proposing 
Release, supra note 2, at 48466-470, for additional discussion of 
the Financial Accountability Milestones and the associated target 
deadlines.
    \82\ See proposed Section 1.1; proposed Section 6.6(c)(ii)-
(iii).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    If the Participants meet the target deadline specified for each 
Financial Accountability Milestone, the terms of the proposed 
amendments would entitle them to collect the full amount \83\ of any 
related Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees.\84\ However, if the 
Participants do not meet the date specified for each Financial 
Accountability Milestone, the proposed amendments would reduce the 
amount of related Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees that the 
Participants may recover.\85\ The proposed amendments set forth one 
recovery schedule for Initial Industry Member Core Equity Reporting and 
another recovery schedule for the remaining three Financial 
Accountability Milestones. Specifically, if the Participants miss the 
target deadline for Initial Industry Member Core Equity Reporting, the 
amount of related Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees that the 
Participants will be entitled to recover will immediately be reduced by 
25 percent and then further reduced by 25 percent for every 60 days by 
which the Participants miss the target deadline.\86\ If the 
Participants miss the target deadlines for the remaining three 
Financial Accountability Milestones, the amount of related Post-
Amendment Industry Member Fees that the Participants will be entitled 
to recover for each Financial Accountability Milestone will immediately 
be reduced by 25 percent and then further reduced by 25 percent for 
every 90 days by which the Participants miss the target deadline.\87\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \83\ ``Full amount'' in this context does not mean that the 
Participants may collect all of their Post-Amendment Expenses from 
Industry Members. Rather, to recover any Post-Amendment Expenses 
from Industry Members, the Participants must file with the 
Commission proposed rule changes. The Commission will then review 
the proposed rule changes for consistency with the Exchange Act and 
the CAT NMS Plan.
    \84\ See proposed Section 11.6(a)(i).
    \85\ See proposed Section 11.6(a)(ii) through (iii).
    \86\ See proposed Section 11.6(a)(ii).
    \87\ See proposed Section 11.6(a)(iii). See Proposing Release, 
supra note 2, at 48470-72, for additional discussion of these 
provisions. The proposed amendments also provide that the 
Participants will only be permitted to collect any Post-Amendment 
Industry Member Fees at the end of the period associated with each 
respective Financial Accountability Milestone. See proposed Section 
11.6(a)(iv); see also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48471-72, 
for additional discussion of this provision.

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[[Page 31330]]

    Finally, the proposed amendments include a provision that would 
require the Participants to clearly indicate, in all proposals filed 
with the Commission to establish or implement Post-Amendment Industry 
Member Fees, whether such fees are related to Post-Amendment Expenses 
and how the Post-Amendment Expenses are related to a particular 
Financial Accountability Milestone.\88\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \88\ See proposed Section 11.6(b); see also Proposing Release, 
supra note 2, at 48472, for additional discussion of this provision.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Modifications to the Proposed Amendments
    The Commission believes that applying the above-described 
conditions, with the modifications set forth below,\89\ to the 
Participants' collection of Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees is 
appropriate. As explained above, proposals for any fees established by 
the Operating Committee, and implemented by the Participants, to 
recover the fees, costs, and expenses incurred by the Participants in 
connection with the development, implementation, and operation of the 
CAT must be filed with the Commission. These fee proposals are then 
subject to Commission review for consistency with Article XI of the CAT 
NMS Plan and the Exchange Act \90\--including Sections 6(b)(4) and 
15A(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which require that each Participant make 
an equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges 
among its members and other persons using its facilities.\91\ In light 
of the Participants' delays in implementation of the CAT NMS Plan, the 
Commission does not believe it would be reasonable for the Participants 
to exercise their funding authority under the CAT NMS Plan or the 
Exchange Act if the Participants do not meet the target deadlines 
specified by the amendments.\92\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \89\ See notes 93-109 infra, for a discussion of the 
modifications to the proposed amendments.
    \90\ 15 U.S.C. 78s(b); 17 CFR 242.608.
    \91\ See 15 U.S.C. 78f(b)(4) (applicable to the national 
securities exchanges); 15 U.S.C. 78o-3(b)(5) (applicable to FINRA, a 
national securities association).
    \92\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48466, 48472, for 
additional discussion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments, as proposed, were designed to prevent further 
delays to CAT implementation, but the Commission is adopting three 
modifications to the proposed amendments to address certain practical 
concerns that were identified by the Commission following the 
publication of the Proposing Release.
    First, the Commission is modifying the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone, Initial Industry Member Core Equity 
Reporting, and the fee recovery schedule associated with that Financial 
Accountability Milestone. The Commission believes that this proposed 
Financial Accountability Milestone should be updated. The proposed 
target deadline for this Financial Accountability Milestone--April 30, 
2020--has passed. Moreover, as noted above, the Commission granted 
exemptive relief allowing the Participants' Compliance Rules for 
Industry Member reporting to the CAT to extend the deadline for core 
equity reporting to June 22, 2020.\93\ The targeted deadline for the 
proposed Initial Industry Member Core Equity Reporting milestone is 
therefore no longer appropriate, but the Commission still believes that 
it is important to include an initial Financial Accountability 
Milestone that requires the Participants to develop, test, and 
implement the essential infrastructure needed to support Industry 
Member reporting--one of the major goals identified by the CAT NMS 
Plan.\94\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \93\ See notes 8-13 and associated text supra, for a discussion 
of the Exemptive Relief Order.
    \94\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 6.7(a)(v).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Accordingly, the Commission is modifying the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone. Section 1.1 of the CAT NMS Plan will now 
define ``Initial Industry Member Core Equity and Option Reporting'' as 
the reporting by Industry Members (excluding Small Industry Members 
\95\ that do not report to the Order Audit Trail System (``OATS'')) of 
both: (a) Equities transaction data, excluding Customer Account 
Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying Information,\96\ to 
the CAT; \97\ and (b) options transaction data, excluding Customer 
Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying Information, 
to the CAT.\98\ This Financial Accountability Milestone shall be 
considered complete as of the date identified in a published Quarterly 
Progress Report meeting the requirements of proposed Section 6.6(c). 
The Commission is also modifying proposed Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) to 
provide that the target deadline for the Initial Industry Member Core 
Equity and Option Reporting milestone is July 31, 2020.\99\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \95\ ``Small Industry Member'' is a defined term in Section 1.1 
of the CAT NMS Plan and has the same definition in the context of 
this adopting release.
    \96\ Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer 
Identifying Information are defined terms in Section 1.1 of the CAT 
NMS Plan and have the same definitions in the context of this 
adopting release.
    \97\ The equities transaction data required at this stage is 
consistent with the functionality that the Participants describe on 
the CAT NMS Plan website as ``Production Go-Live for Equities 2a 
file submission and data integrity validations.'' See https://catnmsplan.com/timeline/phase.
    \98\ The options transaction data required at this stage is 
consistent with the functionality that the Participants describe on 
the CAT NMS Plan website as ``Production Go-Live for Options 2b file 
submission and data integrity validations.'' See id.
    \99\ The target deadline for this Financial Accountability 
Milestone falls between scheduled Quarterly Progress Reports. If the 
Participants wait to submit the Quarterly Progress Report to the 
Commission, it may delay their ability to begin recovering any Post-
Amendment Industry Member Fees to which they may be entitled. In 
order to expedite their recovery of Post-Amendment Industry Member 
Fees, the Participants may file an interim Quarterly Progress 
Report, if they so choose, on the day they achieve this Financial 
Accountability Milestone (or any other Financial Accountability 
Milestone). See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48466 n.79.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission believes that this Financial Accountability 
Milestone is appropriate because it is designed to achieve the goals of 
the proposed Initial Industry Member Core Equity Reporting milestone. 
As the Commission noted in the Proposing Release, before Industry 
Members may begin reporting data to the CAT, the Participants must 
develop, and Industry Members must thoroughly test, file submission 
tools, data integrity controls, and various security measures to ensure 
that the CAT can safely receive and process this data, as well as 
identify data that may not be accurate. These are core operations that 
are fundamental to the success of the CAT.\100\ By requiring Industry 
Members--excluding Small Industry Members that are not OATS reporters 
\101\--to report the first phase of equities and simple electronic 
options data to the CAT, the Initial Industry Member Core Equity and 
Option Reporting milestone will continue to require the Participants to 
demonstrate that they have made significant progress towards 
implementing foundational CAT functionality.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \100\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48466.
    \101\ The Commission continues to believe that it is appropriate 
to exclude Small Industry Members that do not report to OATS from 
this Financial Accountability Milestone in order to mirror the 
exemptive relief granted to the Participants. See, e.g., Exemptive 
Relief Order, supra note 8, at 23082.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Moreover, the Commission believes that this Financial 
Accountability Milestone, as modified, accounts for the additional 
amount of time that the Participants will now be given to achieve the 
first Financial Accountability Milestone. The Participants will now 
have to begin Industry Member reporting of the first phase of simple 
electronic options data to the CAT, in addition to satisfying the 
previous requirements of the proposed Initial Industry Member Core 
Equity

[[Page 31331]]

Reporting milestone. Recent timelines published by the Participants 
indicate that the production environment for Industry Member equities 
transaction reporting went live on April 13, 2020,\102\ and the 
Participants have indicated that Industry Member reporting for the 
first phase of simple electronic options data will begin on July 20, 
2020.\103\ The Commission therefore believes that the modified target 
deadline of July 31, 2020, for the Initial Industry Member Core Equity 
and Option Reporting milestone is reasonable and feasible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \102\ See https://www.catnmsplan.com/announcements/cat-now-open-reporting-broker-dealers.
    \103\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Second, the Commission is also modifying the fee recovery schedule 
associated with the first Financial Accountability Milestone to reflect 
the new target deadline.\104\ Accordingly, if the Participants do not 
meet the specified date for the achievement of Initial Industry Member 
Core Equity and Option Reporting, Section 11.6(a)(ii) will provide that 
the Participants' recovery of Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees will 
be reduced according to the following schedule:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \104\ In addition, the Commission is modifying the text of 
proposed Sections 11.6(a)(ii) and (iii) to add more granular 
citations and text that will further clarify which fee recovery 
schedule applies to which Financial Accountability Milestone. The 
Commission is not modifying the fee recovery schedule for the Full 
Implementation of Core Equity Reporting milestone, the Full 
Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database 
Functionality milestone, or the Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan 
Requirements milestone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     By 25 percent if the Participants miss the deadline set 
forth in Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by less than 45 days;
     By 50 percent if the Participants miss the deadline set 
forth in Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by more than 45 days, but less than 90 
days;
     By 75 percent if the Participants miss the deadline set 
forth in Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by more than 90 days, but less than 135 
days; and
     By 100 percent if the Participants miss the deadline set 
forth in Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by more than 135 days.
    The Commission believes this fee recovery schedule is appropriate 
due to the new target deadline of July 31, 2020. It is critically 
important that the Participants remain on schedule to achieve the first 
Financial Accountability Milestone, in order to minimize the 
possibility that the deadlines for subsequent Financial Accountability 
Milestones will be missed.\105\ Moreover, as explained above, the 
Commission believes that the Participants should be able to meet the 
target deadline.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \105\ See also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48470-72, for 
further discussion of the fee recovery schedules.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Third, the Commission is modifying the Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transaction Database Functionality milestone 
to eliminate certain error rate requirements. The proposed amendments 
would have required the Participants to achieve the initial error rates 
specified by the CAT NMS Plan for Industry Member reporting of manual 
and complex options transactions, as well as any options allocation 
information, by December 31, 2021,\106\ in order to satisfy the Full 
Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transaction Database 
Functionality milestone. However, the Participants estimate that these 
functionalities will not be fully implemented until December 13, 
2021.\107\ Because these functionalities are estimated to be 
implemented within the same month as the targeted date for satisfying 
the Full Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transaction 
Database Functionality milestone, upon review, the Commission believes 
it is not appropriate to require such error rates for purposes of 
financial recovery.\108\ The Commission is not modifying any other 
aspects of this Financial Accountability Milestone; the Participants 
will still be required to implement the functionality as proposed--
namely, reporting of manual and complex options transactions and 
options allocation information--but they will not be required to 
satisfy any error rate requirement for these functionalities. The 
Participants will also still be required to achieve the initial error 
rate specified by the CAT NMS Plan for Industry Member reporting of 
equities and simple electronic options transactions, excluding Customer 
Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying Information, 
with all required linkages (including representative order linkages and 
equities allocation information) to permit the Participants and the 
Commission to analyze the full lifecycle of an order across the 
national market system, from order origination through order execution 
or order cancellation.\109\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \106\ See id.; see also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 
48468-69, for additional discussion of the proposed Financial 
Accountability Milestone.
    \107\ See note 97 supra; see also Securities Exchange Act 
Release No. 87990 (January 16, 2020), 85 FR 3963 (January 23, 2020) 
(pending proposed rule change that indicates, among other things, 
that such functionality will not be implemented until December 13, 
2021). The Commission does not believe that this modification will 
significantly impact the Commission's goals for this Financial 
Accountability Milestone. When the Participants achieve this 
milestone, regulators will still have access to sufficiently 
accurate and reliable equities and simple electronic options 
transactional data and order linkages that will enable regulators to 
analyze the full lifecycle of an order and conduct new and 
sophisticated analyses of the markets, including options market 
reconstruction and cross-market analyses across full order 
lifecycles. See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48468-69.
    \108\ The CAT NMS Plan, however, still requires an initial error 
rate of 5 percent. See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 
6.5(d)(i).
    \109\ See Section 1.1, ``Full Availability and Regulatory 
Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Discussion of the Comments
    Most commenters agreed with the Commission that increasing the 
financial accountability of the Participants will help to prevent 
further delays to CAT implementation. One commenter, for example, 
``support[ed] the Commission'[s] actions to . . . have formal deadlines 
to assist member firms' [CAT] implementation planning . . . and set 
financial incentives to avoid further delays.'' \110\ Another commenter 
``agree[d] with the Commission that additional Participant 
Accountability Milestones should facilitate the completion of the 
implementation phase(s) of CAT in an efficient, expeditious and risk-
averse manner, thereby reducing the risk of further delay.'' \111\ 
Finally, one commenter stated that ``imposing financial accountability 
measures on CAT NMS should increase the likelihood of the CAT's 
implementation.'' \112\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \110\ See SIFMA Letter, at 1.
    \111\ See FIF Letter, at 2.
    \112\ See Better Markets Letter, at 3 (stating that the ``key 
milestones outlined in the Proposed Amendment are good measures that 
the Participants are making progress toward delivering a completed 
CAT'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    However, commenters raised concerns regarding aspects of the 
proposed amendments. These concerns generally fell into four 
categories: (a) Threshold questions regarding the CAT funding model; 
(b) the potential negative impact of the proposed amendments; (c) the 
fairness of the proposed amendments; and (d) the possibility of 
unforeseen, but reasonable, delays. As discussed in more detail below, 
the Commission does not believe that it is necessary to modify the 
proposed amendments to address these concerns. Nevertheless, as 
discussed above, the Commission is adopting two modifications to the 
proposed amendments to account for certain practical issues that were 
separately identified by the Commission,\113\ and it is possible that 
these modifications may also alleviate some of the concerns expressed 
by commenters.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \113\ See Part II.B.2. supra.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 31332]]

a. Comments on the CAT Funding Model
    Commenters raised threshold questions regarding the Participants' 
ability to recover from Industry Members a portion of the fees, 
expenses, and costs incurred by the Participants in connection with the 
development, implementation, and operation of the CAT. For instance, 
one commenter stated that the ``Plan Participants have not provided 
justification for imposing fees on broker-dealers for the CAT[] that 
will be in addition to fees the Plan Participants already charge 
broker-dealers for regulatory funding.'' \114\ Another commenter 
observed that ``broker-dealers already provide the [Participant]s a 
significant amount of regulatory funding'' and suggested that ``there 
should be no new fee for the CAT until member firms are provided with a 
fully-documented account of how regulatory fees are currently 
allocated, how the CAT fee fits into the existing regulatory framework, 
and why assessing broker-dealers an additive regulatory fee is 
necessary to fund the creation and operation of the CAT.'' \115\ This 
commenter further asserted that ``broker-dealers should not be required 
to reimburse the [Participant]s for any part of the costs or expenses 
of the CAT other than the direct costs to build and operate the system 
itself,'' such as ``third-party support fees (historical legal fees, 
consulting fees, and audit fees), operational reserve, and insurance 
costs,'' or for ``any payments made to Thesys in connection with the 
CAT.'' \116\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \114\ See Fidelity Letter, at 5.
    \115\ See SIFMA Letter, at 2.
    \116\ See id. at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    These concerns were raised by commenters and addressed by the 
Commission when it approved the CAT NMS Plan,\117\ which explicitly 
permits the Participants to recover from Industry Members a portion of 
the fees, expenses, and costs incurred to build, operate, and 
administer the CAT and the other costs of the Company.\118\ After 
considering these concerns, the Commission approved the funding model 
set forth in the CAT NMS Plan because the Commission believed that it 
reflected a ``reasonable exercise of the Participants' funding 
authority . . .'' \119\ The Commission stated that the CAT was a 
``regulatory facility jointly owned by the Participants,'' that the 
``Exchange Act specifically permits the Participants to charge members 
fees to fund their self-regulatory obligations,'' and that the funding 
model was ``designed to impose fees reasonably related to the 
Participants' self-regulatory obligations because the fees would be 
directly associated with the costs of establishing and maintaining the 
CAT, and notunrelated . . . services.'' \120\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \117\ See, e.g., CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at 
84793-95.
    \118\ See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Article XI.
    \119\ See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at 84794.
    \120\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Even though the amendments reflect the Commission's view as to how 
the Participants may reasonably exercise their funding authority under 
the Exchange Act and the CAT NMS Plan,\121\ the Commission still 
believes that the overall structure of the CAT funding model is 
appropriate. The CAT continues to be a ``regulatory facility jointly 
owned by the Participants,'' the Exchange Act continues to ``permit[] 
the Participants to charge members fees to fund their self-regulatory 
obligations'' if those fees are reasonable, and the funding model 
continues to be ``designed to impose fees reasonably related to the 
Participants' self-regulatory obligations because the fees would be 
directly associated with the costs of establishing and maintaining the 
CAT, and not unrelated . . . services.'' \122\ The Commission therefore 
is not modifying the proposed amendments (or the CAT NMS Plan) on these 
grounds. However, the Commission stresses that it is not hereby 
approving any specific Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees; rather, 
such fee proposals must be filed with the Commission by the 
Participants, published for public comment, and assessed by the 
Commission for consistency with the Exchange Act and the CAT NMS 
Plan.\123\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \121\ See notes 89-92 and associated text supra.
    \122\ See id.
    \123\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Comments on the Potential Negative Impact of the Proposed Amendments
    A few commenters believed that ``strict adherence to the 
Participants' delivery of specified target milestone[s] on or before 
particular dates (and sanctions imposed as a result of not meeting 
those dates) are likely to result in lower quality deliverables and an 
incomplete CAT Repository.'' \124\ One commenter specifically 
identified a ``subset'' of the number of potential negative 
consequences of this approach, including: ``1) Reduced dialogue between 
industry member CAT Reporters and the Participants; 2) lower quality 
CAT IM Tech Specs; 3) reduced emphasis on the development and 
publication of vital industry member guidance . . .; 4) a less 
effective issue resolution process; and 5) the implementation of Phase 
2a prior to the full development of the CAT system.'' \125\ In short, 
the commenter believed that the ``financial penalty structure outlined 
in the Proposed Amendments has the clear potential to limit and short 
circuit the required cooperative analysis, feedback, and iterative 
update process that would result in the reduced quality of deliverables 
and place at risk CAT's key regulatory goals.'' \126\ Accordingly, this 
commenter suggested that the Commission should essentially delete the 
target deadlines, but retain the requirement to complete such 
milestones.\127\ Specifically, this commenter stated that the 
Commission should perform a ``holistic assessment of the 
Participants['] management of CAT implementation . . . based upon: 1) 
the successful completion of milestones; 2) detail contained in 
Participant Quarterly Progress Reports; . . . 3) industry member 
feedback [to supplement the information obtained from Quarterly 
Progress Reports],'' and 4) ``engagement with the Operating Committee 
and Plan Processor to better gauge whether the Participants are meeting 
the obligations delegated to them by the Commission,'' instead of 
``strict adherence to enumerated milestone target dates.'' \128\ In the 
alternative, ``[s]hould the Commission

[[Page 31333]]

approve and adopt the proposed Plan Amendment to incorporate Financial 
Accountability Milestones,'' the commenter believed that the Commission 
and the Participants should ``take measures to ensure that the high 
degree of collaboration between the industry, Participants, and the 
Plan Processor remains in place.'' \129\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \124\ See FIF Letter, at 3. See also Participant Letter, at 10 
(``Faced with financial penalties for missed deadlines, the 
Participants may not be able to fully address legitimate industry 
concerns or accommodate requests for delays with respect to future 
deadlines.''); Fidelity Letter, at 5 (``We also recognize that 
despite best efforts, unforeseen circumstances may occur where it 
may be in the collective best interest to extend a target deadline. 
In these circumstances, we believe that financial penalties will 
create a degree of friction in the development process that is not 
conducive to the overall success of the CAT and that may prioritize 
rushing to complete a target deadline over a long-term view of the 
CAT.'').
    \125\ See FIF Letter, at 3, 7. This commenter also recommended 
adjusting interim deadlines set by the Participants for certain 
phases of CAT implementation. See id. at 5-6 and Appendix B. The 
Commission does not believe such adjustments are necessary, as the 
Commission believes the current timeline is appropriate and 
feasible. However, because such changes could be made without 
impacting the target deadlines for the Financial Accountability 
Milestones, the Participants can decide to make the recommended 
changes.
    \126\ See id. at 7-8.
    \127\ See id. at 4. See also Participant Letter, at 9 (arguing 
that the Financial Accountability Milestones ``should be revised so 
that CAT LLC may collect Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees so long 
as CAT LLC and the Participants have completed development and 
testing and made available to Industry Members and the SEC the CAT 
functionality applicable to a particular Milestone'').
    \128\ See FIF Letter, at 6, 8.
    \129\ See id. at 7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission does not believe that it is appropriate or necessary 
to eliminate the target deadlines from the proposed amendments, as 
suggested by some commenters. The proposed amendments were not designed 
only to achieve CAT implementation, but, more specifically, to achieve 
CAT implementation in a timely manner. It has been over three years 
since the Commission approved the CAT NMS Plan, and the need for a 
better audit trail system remains urgent. Accordingly, the Commission 
included target deadlines in the proposed amendments as one measure to 
reduce the likelihood of additional delays to CAT implementation. To 
remove these target deadlines from the proposed amendments, or to 
eliminate the financial incentives associated with the target 
deadlines, would fundamentally undercut the goal of the Commission in 
promulgating the proposed amendments--namely, the implementation of the 
CAT in a reasonable time frame.
    Although the Commission is sensitive to commenters' concerns 
regarding the potential for ``lower quality deliverables'' due to any 
perceived possibility of reduced collaboration,\130\ the proposed 
amendments do not alter the fundamental obligations of the 
Participants, Industry Members, and Plan Processor to deliver CAT 
functionality in a manner that complies with the CAT NMS Plan.\131\ Nor 
do the proposed amendments alter or weaken requirements set forth in 
the CAT NMS Plan to facilitate collaboration and communication between 
the Participants and Industry Members.\132\ The Commission therefore 
does not expect the quality of CAT implementation to be adversely 
affected by the proposed amendments. Accordingly, the Commission is not 
modifying the proposed financial accountability amendments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \130\ One commenter also expressed concern that the proposed 
amendments might result in ``the implementation of Phase 2a prior to 
the full development of the CAT system.'' See id. at 3. The 
Participants are already pursuing an implementation plan that 
implements the CAT in phases and that will result in ``Phase 2a'' 
being implemented ``prior to the full development of the CAT 
system.'' The amendments have no effect on this plan.
    \131\ See note 145 and associated text infra, for a discussion 
of the Industry Members' obligations to comply with the CAT NMS 
Plan.
    \132\ See, e.g., CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Appendix D, 
Section 10.1 through 10.3 (detailing the support to be provided by 
the Plan Processor to CAT reporters and CAT users). Many of these 
measures have already been implemented by the Participants. See, 
e.g., notes 142-144 and associated text supra.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

c. Comments on the Fairness of the Proposed Amendments
    Commenters expressed views regarding the fairness of the proposed 
amendments' conditions on financial recovery. ``If the Participants 
miss a proposed target deadline,'' one Industry Member commenter 
``generally [did] not believe that it [would be] reasonable for the 
Plan Participants to fully recover fees, costs, and expenses from 
Industry Members, because further delays by Plan Participants will 
impose additional costs on Industry Members.'' \133\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \133\ See Fidelity Letter, at 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Participants, on the other hand, believed that the proposed 
amendments were ``inappropriate and unfair,'' because the ``ability of 
CAT LLC and the Participants to collect Post-Amendment Industry Member 
Fees should turn only on the timely completion of those tasks that are 
within their control.'' \134\ For instance, the Participants objected 
to the fact that several of the proposed Financial Accountability 
Milestones require the achievement of the initial error rates specified 
by the CAT NMS Plan. The Participants stated that ``achieving an error 
rate of five percent or less involves factors that are beyond their 
control,'' because the ``ability and willingness of Industry Members to 
devote sufficient resources to accurately and timely report CAT events 
. . . will impact initial and subsequent error rates.'' \135\ 
Similarly, the Participants stated that the requirements contained in 
several of the proposed Financial Accountability Milestones regarding 
intrafirm and interfirm linkages ``rel[y], in part, on the quality of 
the data reported to CAT by Industry Members.'' \136\ The Participants 
expressed concern that, ``by conditioning the ability of CAT LLC and 
the Participants to collect Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees on 
factors dependent on the efforts of Industry Members, the Commission's 
proposals inadvertently establish a perverse incentive for Industry 
Members to devote less than maximum efforts to comply with their 
obligations related to the CAT as they will pay less fees in such 
instances.'' \137\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \134\ See Participant Letter, at 8-9.
    \135\ See id. at 9.
    \136\ See id.
    \137\ See id. Another commenter also expressed concern that the 
proposed amendments ``would be subject to gaming by Industry Members 
who stand to benefit from delays, but [who] would not suffer the 
consequences of the delays they cause.'' See Better Markets Letter, 
at 8. This commenter suggested that the proposed financial 
accountability amendments be ``equally applied to Plan Participants 
as well as those Industry Members who contribute to any delay'' and 
specifically recommended the adoption of a reporting mechanism that 
would enable the Commission to determine which parties were 
responsible for causing or contributing to a delay. See id. at 3, 8-
9. The Commission continues to believe that it is appropriate to 
impose the obligations of the financial accountability amendments 
solely on the Participants for the reasons discussed below. See the 
discussion at notes 142-148 and associated text infra. Accordingly, 
the Commission is not adopting the reporting mechanism proposed by 
this commenter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Participants stated that the proposed Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality 
milestone could not be met unless OATS reporting was no longer required 
for new orders, which was another example of how the proposed 
amendments were ``inappropriate and unfair.'' \138\ The Participants 
asserted that achieving this requirement ``depends upon a variety of 
factors outside the control of the Participants, including accurate 
reporting by Industry Members and FINRA's determination to retire 
OATS.'' \139\ According to the Participants, FINRA has indicated that 
``the CAT would generally need to achieve a sustained error rate for 
Industry Member reporting in a number of categories for a period of at 
least 180 days of 5[ percent] or lower, measured on a pre-correction or 
as-submitted basis, and 2[ percent] or lower on a post-correction 
basis'' before OATS could be safely retired, because a minimum of 180 
days was necessary ``to confirm that the Plan Processor is meeting its 
obligations and performing its functions adequately'' and material 
issues ``may manifest themselves only after surveillance patterns and 
other queries have been run and analyzed . . . .'' \140\ Insofar as the 
``premature cessation of OATS before CAT data quality levels are 
acceptable . . . would expose the market to unnecessary risks because 
market surveillance would be compromised,'' the Participants believed 
that no ``hard and fast

[[Page 31334]]

deadline'' should be set for the retirement of OATS.\141\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \138\ See Participant Letter, at 9; see also proposed Section 
1.1, ``Full Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional 
Database Functionality.''
    \139\ See Participant Letter, at 9.
    \140\ See id. at 10-11.
    \141\ See id. at 11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Despite their concerns, the Participants have the ability to shape 
the reporting behavior of Industry Members, including the quality of 
data reported by Industry Members, through various mechanisms, 
including through the development of CAT technical specifications with 
Industry Members via the Technical Specifications Working Group,\142\ 
through the creation of a help desk for Industry Members to provide 
assistance with any technical issues that may arise,\143\ through the 
production of tools that will enable Industry Members to identify and 
correct errors,\144\ and through general industry outreach, provided in 
the form of FAQs, webinars, or other additional training for Industry 
Members. In addition, while the Commission expects Industry Members to 
comply with their reporting obligations under the CAT NMS Plan, the 
Participants have tools to require such compliance--including 
Compliance Rules that will set forth a phased reporting schedule 
according to the timeline detailed in the Exemptive Relief Order.\145\ 
Industry Members should have a strong economic incentive to cooperate 
with the Participants' efforts.\146\ Until the CAT is sufficiently 
developed so as to permit the retirement of OATS, most Industry Members 
will have to report both to OATS and to the CAT, and prolonging the 
implementation of the CAT would expand the dual reporting costs that 
these Industry Members will have to bear.\147\ For these reasons, and 
for the reasons set forth in the Proposing Release,\148\ the Commission 
continues to believe that it is appropriate to impose the conditions of 
the amendments solely on the Participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \142\ See Event Materials, including recorded Q&A sessions with 
the Technical Specifications Working Group and market participants, 
available at https://catnmsplan.com/events/materials. See also 
Participant Letter, at 2 (detailing efforts made to liaise with 
Industry Members on ``Industry Member reporting, CAT onboarding, 
connectivity, security and other topics related to the CAT'').
    \143\ See Participant Letter, at 2. Contact information for the 
help desk can be found at https://catnmsplan.com/contact.
    \144\ See, e.g., CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Appendix D, 
Section 10.1 (requiring the Plan Processor to develop tools to allow 
each CAT reporter to identify and correct errors and to provide 
daily reporting statistics to each CAT reporter).
    \145\ See, e.g., CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 3.11 
(requiring the Participants to enforce compliance with the CAT NMS 
Plan by promulgating compliance rules for Industry Members); id. at 
Section 6.4 (indicating that data reporting requirements for 
Industry Members will be enforced through the Participants' 
compliance rules); id. at Section 6.7 (indicating that Industry 
Member data reporting deadlines will be enforced through the 
Participants' compliance rules). With respect to these compliance 
tools, one commenter expressed concern that, ``if there are 
legitimate reasons that broker-dealers have not been able to deliver 
a 5[ percent] error rate, and the [Participants] believe they will 
be financially penalized for a too-high error rate, then the 
[Participants] will be incentivized to bring enforcement actions 
against broker-dealers solely for the purpose of recouping the lost 
funding.'' See SIFMA Letter, at 2. However, any enforcement action 
brought by the Participants must comply with the Exchange Act, the 
rules promulgated thereunder, and their own rules.
    \146\ See, e.g., SIFMA Letter, at 2 (stating that Industry 
Members are ``committed to a timely implementation of CAT 
reporting'').
    \147\ See note 286 and associated text infra.
    \148\ See, e.g., Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48459-460.
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    The Participants' comment letter was particularly focused on 
proposed conditions related to error rates, but the Commission believes 
that these conditions are appropriate. The proposed Financial 
Accountability Milestones that include error rate requirements do not 
impose any requirements that are more onerous than initial error rate 
requirements already set forth in the CAT NMS Plan.\149\ The 
Participants have, in the past, indicated that these initial error rate 
requirements are appropriate, because they ``strike[] the balance of 
making allowances for adapting to a new reporting regime while ensuring 
that the data provided to regulators will be capable of being used to 
conduct surveillance and market reconstruction.'' \150\ Furthermore, 
because the Participants have chosen to implement Industry Member 
reporting in phases,\151\ the Commission generally believes it is 
appropriate to require the Participants to satisfy the initial error 
rates set by the CAT NMS Plan for each phase that has been completed. 
This approach, reflected in the proposed amendments, as modified, only 
requires the Participants to focus on data quality for functionality 
that has been fully implemented for some time, not on those elements of 
the CAT that may still be in development or that have been newly 
implemented.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \149\ Cf., e.g., CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 
6.5(d)(i) (``The initial maximum Error Rate shall be set to 5[ 
percent].''), and proposed Section 1.1, ``Full Implementation of CAT 
NMS Plan Requirements'' (requiring the CAT to be ``fully implemented 
at the initial Error Rates specified Section 6.5(d)(i) or less'').
    \150\ See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at 84717.
    \151\ See, e.g., Exemptive Relief Order, supra note 8.
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    Moreover, the Commission believes that the amendments, as modified, 
give the Participants ample time to achieve the required error rates. 
With respect to the Full Implementation of Core Equity Reporting 
Requirements milestone, the Participants are currently estimating, and 
the Commission believes, that the required Industry Member reporting 
and linkages will be fully implemented by October 26, 2020.\152\ The 
Participants will therefore have more than two months to achieve the 
required error rate by the target deadline for this Financial 
Accountability Milestone, which is December 31, 2020.\153\ The next 
Financial Accountability Milestone, the Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality 
milestone, as modified, requires the Participants to sustain the error 
rates achieved for the previous milestone and to achieve the same 
requirements for simple electronic options transaction data, 
representative order linkages, and equities allocation information by 
December 31, 2021. The Participants are currently estimating that the 
required options functionality will be implemented by January 4, 2021 
\154\ and that the representative order linkage and allocation 
information functionality will be implemented by April 26, 2021.\155\ 
Therefore, the Commission believes that the Participants should have 
sufficient time to satisfy those error rate requirements. Likewise, the 
Commission believes the target deadline for the Full Implementation of 
CAT NMS Plan Requirements milestone provides the Participants with 
sufficient time to achieve the required error rates. The Participants 
currently estimate that the CAT will be fully implemented by July 11, 
2022.\156\ The amendments, as modified, therefore give the Participants 
approximately five months to achieve the required error rates,\157\ 
which the Commission believes is an appropriate amount of time to 
address any issues with the final phases of CAT implementation.\158\
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    \152\ See note 97 supra.
    \153\ See also Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48468.
    \154\ See note 97 supra.
    \155\ See Exemptive Relief Order, supra note 8, at 23081.
    \156\ See id.
    \157\ The Participants should have more than a year to achieve 
some of the required error rates, as the modified Full Availability 
and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality 
milestone would require the Participants to implement Industry 
Member reporting of manual and complex options transaction data, 
with options allocation information, by December 31, 2021, 
consistent with the Participants' current projections. See id.
    \158\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48470. The 
Participants will be required to implement Industry Member reporting 
of Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer 
Identifying Information to achieve Full Implementation of CAT NMS 
Plan Requirements. See CAT NMS Plan, supra note 1, at Section 1.1 
for definitions of these terms. The Participants' CAT Reporting 
Customer and Account Technical Specifications indicates that they 
began implementing the customer and account information database in 
December 2019, see https://www.catnmsplan.com/specifications/im, so 
the Commission believes that the Participants should have ample time 
to achieve the required error rates for these aspects of CAT 
implementation.

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[[Page 31335]]

    The Commission also does not believe that it is necessary to modify 
the proposed amendments to address the Participants' concerns regarding 
OATS retirement. The Participants have stated that Industry Member 
reporting for equities data inclusive of OATS reporting will be fully 
implemented by October 26, 2020.\159\ Consequently, the modified 
amendments will give the Participants approximately fourteen months to 
meet the required error rate for equities data and retire OATS. The 
Commission believes that this is a sufficient amount of time to achieve 
these goals, based on FINRA's representations regarding the amount of 
time it would take to retire OATS.\160\ If the Participants complete 
the Full Implementation of Core Equity Reporting Requirements milestone 
by the target deadline for that Financial Accountability Milestone, the 
Participants will already have achieved the 5 percent error rates 
required for equities transaction data reported by Industry Members by 
December 31, 2020.\161\ The Participants will then have far more than 
180 days in which to achieve the ``5[ percent] or lower, measured on a 
pre-correction or as-submitted basis, and 2[ percent] or lower on a 
post-correction basis,'' error rates that may be required by FINRA to 
retire OATS.\162\ Accordingly, the Commission does not believe any 
further modifications to these amendments are appropriate or necessary.
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    \159\ See note 97 supra.
    \160\ See, e.g., Participant Letter, at 8-11. Although FINRA is 
the only Participant that may determine whether to retire OATS, the 
Commission continues to believe that it is appropriate to apply this 
condition to all Participants. All of the Participants are jointly 
responsible for creating a CAT that is capable of replacing OATS, 
and all of the Participants are regulators that will benefit from 
the full implementation of the CAT. See Proposing Release, supra 
note 2, at 48469 n.106. Moreover, FINRA has developed, and 
communicated to the Participants, a plan governing the retirement of 
OATS--see, e.g., Participant Letter, at 10-11--and the Commission 
expects that such advance planning could make it more likely that 
OATS will be retired by the target deadline of December 31, 2021. 
Nevertheless, the Commission will continue to monitor the progress 
of CAT implementation closely and could consider exempting the 
Participants from compliance with this condition at a later date, if 
appropriate. See note 147 and associated text infra, noting the 
Commission's ability to grant exemptive relief from any requirement 
associated with a Financial Accountability Milestone.
    \161\ See proposed Section 1.1, ``Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality.''
    \162\ See Participant Letter, at 10-11. The Commission does not 
believe that its involvement in approving the retirement of OATS and 
OATS-related rules should unduly delay the achievement of Full 
Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database 
Functionality. FINRA and the Participants with rules relating to 
OATS may submit filings to the Commission at any point to identify 
the conditions under which OATS would be retired and OATS-related 
provisions removed from the Participants' rulebooks. The Commission 
could consider and act on these retirement filings well before the 
December 31, 2021 deadline and, if approved, would permit FINRA and 
the Participants to subsequently issue a notice indicating when the 
conditions identified in the filings are met, thus ensuring that 
this condition is fulfilled in a timely manner.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

d. Comments on the Possibility of Unforeseen, But Reasonable, Delays
    Several commenters recommended that the Commission adopt a more 
flexible approach that could account for the possibility of reasonable 
delays to CAT implementation. For example, one commenter stated that 
the ``completion of current and upcoming CAT implementation milestones 
are all contingent on several challenging and aggressive deliverables, 
many of which will impact the development, testing, and roll-out of 
complex technology . . . .'' \163\ This commenter believed that 
``factors outside of the Participants' and/or Plan Processor's control 
may require the regulators to revisit the reasonableness and viability 
of implementation milestones to preserve the ultimate delivery of a 
useable CAT in a reasonable timeframe.'' \164\ Accordingly, this 
commenter recommended that the Commission ``include provisions to the 
Proposed Amendments that allow, after the holistic assessment of all 
factors impacting the Participants' ability to meet a particular 
milestone date, flexibility to extend milestone dates without holding 
Participants directly accountable (financially or otherwise).'' \165\
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    \163\ See FIF Letter, at 4.
    \164\ See id.
    \165\ See id.; see also Fidelity Letter, at 5 (``We recommend 
that the SEC allow for some flexibility or reasonable delays in 
target deadlines, particularly in matters that may impact data 
quality.'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Another commenter requested that ``the amendments to the CAT NMS 
Plan include a formal mechanism to address potential delays in CAT 
implementation that may arise for legitimate reasons,'' ``due to a 
reasonable need for delay or to factors beyond anyone's control.'' 
\166\ This commenter suggested that the ``mechanism could be a similar 
process to the proposed publications of the implementation plan--
approval from each [Participant]'s senior officer and vote by the 
Operating Committee,'' as such a mechanism ``would serve the purpose of 
completing the CAT in a timely manner while taking into account the 
operational complexity of the CAT implementation process.'' \167\ This 
commenter also ``recommended that the Commission take reasonable delays 
into account in imposing the proposed financial penalties,'' perhaps by 
``suspending the proposed financial penalties based on the cause, 
foreseeability and attempts to mitigate the impact of the delay.'' 
\168\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \166\ See SIFMA Letter, at 2. See also Participant Letter, at 9 
(``[U]nanticipated issues invariably arise on large technology 
projects and CAT is no exception.'').
    \167\ See SIFMA Letter, at 2.
    \168\ See id. Similarly, the Participants stated that ``the 
Commission and all market participants would benefit from a more 
flexible approach in which the Commission would assess the 
appropriateness of the recovery of Post-Amendment Industry Member 
Fees in the context of particular facts and circumstances in the 
event of a delay in meeting such a Milestone.'' See Participant 
Letter, at 10.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Although it is sensitive to the concerns expressed by commenters, 
the Commission is adopting a mechanism that would not allow further 
delays to occur without consequence. The Participants have already 
missed the Commission-approved deadlines set forth in the CAT NMS 
Plan.\169\ The Participants are responsible for timely CAT 
implementation, including selecting and managing the Plan Processor, 
and the process is fundamentally within their control.\170\ Delays to 
CAT implementation have serious consequences; they prevent regulators 
and market participants from reaping the regulatory benefits of the 
CAT, as well as potentially increase costs for Industry Members 
attempting to comply with the Participants' projected timelines.\171\ 
However, the Commission has the authority to grant exemptive relief 
from any requirement associated with a particular Financial 
Accountability Milestone.\172\ The Commission believes that this 
ability, in particular, should alleviate the Participants' concerns 
regarding the potential impact of unforeseeable or reasonable delays.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \169\ See, e.g., note 6 supra; see also Proposing Release, supra 
note 7, at 48458-461.
    \170\ See Part II.B.2.c. supra, for further discussion of these 
arguments. See also, e.g., Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 
48460.
    \171\ See, e.g., Fidelity Letter, at 2 (explaining how further 
delays by the Participants may impose additional costs on Industry 
Members); see also infra Part IV.B.
    \172\ See 15 U.S.C. 78mm; 17 CFR 242.608(e).

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[[Page 31336]]

III. Paperwork Reduction Act

    Certain provisions of the amendments adopted by the Commission 
contain ``collection of information requirements'' within the meaning 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (``PRA'').\173\ The Commission 
published a notice requesting comment on the collection of information 
requirements in the Proposing Release \174\ and submitted relevant 
information to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for review 
in accordance with 44 U.S.C. 3507(d) and 5 CFR 1320.11.\175\ An agency 
may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, 
a collection of information unless the agency displays a currently 
valid control number,\176\ and the Commission has applied for an OMB 
control number for this collection of information. The title of the new 
collection of information is ``CAT NMS Plan Reports.''
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    \173\ 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.
    \174\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48474-78.
    \175\ 44 U.S.C. 3507; 5 CFR 1320.11.
    \176\ 5 CFR 1320.11(l).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission requested comment on the proposed collection of 
information requirements, but no commenters addressed these issues. The 
Commission continues to believe its estimates of the burdens involved 
with this collection of information are reasonable, but it has adjusted 
some of its estimates to account for the fact that Long Term Stock 
Exchange, LLC has been added as a Participant.\177\ Accordingly, there 
are now 24 Participants instead of the 23 Participants accounted for in 
the Proposing Release.\178\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \177\ See note 1 supra.
    \178\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48474-78.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. Summary of Collection of Information

    The modified amendments require two new categories of information 
collection: (1) The Implementation Plan and (2) the Quarterly Progress 
Reports.
1. Implementation Plan
    Section 6.6(c)(i) requires the Participants, within 30 calendar 
days following the effective date of this amendment, to file with the 
Commission and make publicly available on a website a complete 
Implementation Plan that includes the Participants' timeline for 
achieving Implementation Milestones setting forth how and when the 
Participants will facilitate the achievement of Full Implementation of 
CAT NMS Plan Requirements. The Operating Committee must submit the 
Implementation Plan to the CEO, President, or an equivalently situated 
senior officer of each Participant. A Supermajority Vote of the 
Operating Committee will then be required to approve the Implementation 
Report. However, if the Implementation Plan is approved only by a 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee, and not by a unanimous 
vote of the Operating Committee, each Participant whose Operating 
Committee member did not vote to approve the Implementation Plan shall 
separately file with the Commission a statement identifying itself and 
explaining why the member did not vote to approve the Implementation 
Plan. These statements shall be made publicly available by each 
dissenting Participant on its website or collectively by all 
Participants on the CAT NMS Plan website.
2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    Section 6.6(c)(ii) requires the Participants, within 30 calendar 
days after the end of each calendar quarter, to file with the 
Commission and make publicly available on a website a complete Report 
that provides a detailed description of the progress made by the 
Participants towards each of the Implementation Milestones. The 
Participants must provide specified information regarding 
Implementation Milestones that have been completed, Implementation 
Milestones that are in progress, and Implementation Milestones that 
have not yet been initiated, such as updated information on currently 
targeted completion dates and descriptions of the current status of the 
Implementation Milestone, any adjustments to the targeted completion 
date, and supporting information demonstrating the current level of 
completion. The Operating Committee must submit each Quarterly Progress 
Report to the CEO, President, or an equivalently situated senior 
officer of each Participant. A Supermajority Vote of the Operating 
Committee shall be required to approve each Quarterly Progress Report. 
However, if a Quarterly Progress Report is approved only by a 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee, and not by a unanimous 
vote of the Operating Committee, each Participant whose Operating 
Committee member did not vote to approve that Quarterly Progress Report 
shall separately file with the Commission a statement identifying 
itself and explaining why the member did not vote to approve the 
Report. These statements shall be made publicly available by each 
dissenting Participant on its website or collectively by all 
Participants on the CAT NMS Plan website.

B. Proposed Use of Information

1. Implementation Plan
    The Commission believes that the publication of the Implementation 
Plan will make available critical information to the Commission, other 
regulators, and market participants regarding the intended goals and 
deadlines of the Participants. Access to this information will help the 
Commission and market participants to monitor the progress of CAT 
implementation, thereby reducing uncertainty surrounding this process. 
The Commission also anticipates that requiring the Participants to make 
public target dates submitted to senior management of each Participant 
and approved by a Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee in the 
Implementation Plan will increase the Participants' accountability to 
their intended timeline. In addition, the Commission believes that 
requiring any Participants whose Operating Committee members do not 
vote to approve the Implementation Plan to disclose the basis for that 
decision may aid the Commission and the public to better monitor the 
progress of CAT implementation, because such an explanation may reveal 
critical information regarding whether currently targeted completion 
dates are realistic, whether milestones are being or have been 
completed in accordance with the requirements of the CAT NMS Plan, and/
or whether potential risks or delays may impede the progress of CAT 
implementation.
2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    The Commission believes that the publication of the Quarterly 
Progress Reports will make available critical information to the 
Commission, other regulators, and market participants regarding the 
intended goals and deadlines of the Participants. Access to this 
information will help the Commission and market participants to monitor 
the progress of CAT implementation. The Commission also anticipates 
that requiring the Participants to make public their accomplishments in 
the Quarterly Progress Reports will keep the Participants accountable 
to their intended timeline. Finally, the Commission expects that the 
provision of updated quarterly information in a Report, submitted to 
senior management of each Participant and approved by a Supermajority 
Vote of the Operating Committee, regarding the Participants' progress 
towards CAT implementation,

[[Page 31337]]

as well as any explanatory statements by Participants whose Operating 
Committee members do not vote to approve the Report, may reduce 
uncertainty regarding CAT's implementation deadlines and flag any 
concerns regarding the implementation process for the Commission and 
market participants.

C. Respondents

    The respondents to all collections of information are the 
Participants.

D. Total Initial and Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burdens

    The estimated burdens associated with the modified amendments are 
described fully below, but this table briefly summarizes the relevant 
burdens.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                 Annual ongoing burden     One-time burden per
                           Category                             per participant (burden    participant (burden
                                                                 hours/external costs)    hours/external costs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Implementation Plan...........................................                      N/A             75/$8,333.33
Quarterly Progress Reports....................................           300/$33,333.33                      N/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Implementation Plan
    The Commission believes that each Participant will incur, on 
average, a one-time burden of approximately 50 hours \179\ to confer 
with other Participants, to draft an Implementation Plan, and to vote 
as to whether to approve the Implementation Plan, as required by 
Section 6.6(c)(iii). In the CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, the Commission 
stated that the Participants had estimated that approximately 20 full-
time employees took approximately 30 months to develop the CAT NMS 
Plan, including ``staff time contributed by each Participant to, among 
other things, determine the technological requirements for the Central 
Repository, develop the RFP, evaluate Bids received, design and collect 
the data necessary to evaluate costs and other economic impacts, meet 
with Industry Members to solicit feedback, and complete the CAT NMS 
Plan submitted to the Commission for consideration.'' \180\ The 
Commission then used this information to estimate that the development 
of the CAT NMS Plan would require, in aggregate, 14,407 burden hours 
for 12 months.\181\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \179\ See note 184 infra, for an explanation of the difference 
in the estimated burden from the Proposing Release to this release.
    \180\ See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at n.3285.
    \181\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This estimate, based on information provided by the Participants 
about the burdens they actually incurred in developing a related 
project, reflects the best data available to the Commission in 
estimating the number of initial burden hours required to develop the 
Implementation Plan. Developing the CAT NMS Plan was a far more complex 
project than the development of the Implementation Plan and that the 
burdens incurred in developing the CAT NMS Plan may be different in 
nature than the costs that the Participants would incur in developing 
the Implementation Plan. In this instance, for example, the 
Participants will only have 30 calendar days from the effective date of 
this amendment to prepare the Implementation Plan, and the Participants 
have already created an Updated Master Plan that contains much of the 
information required by Section 6.6(c)(i). In addition, the Commission 
believes that the Participants should already have gathered much of the 
information needed to create the Implementation Plan.\182\ For these 
reasons, the Commission believes that the estimated burden for 
preparing the Implementation Plan should be one-twelfth the amount of 
the burden estimated for the development of the CAT NMS Plan,\183\ or, 
on average, 50 initial, one-time burden hours for each 
Participant.\184\
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    \182\ See, e.g., Participant Letter, at 6.
    \183\ Because the proposed amendment gives the Participants 
approximately one month to prepare and publish the Implementation 
Plan, the Commission has used an estimate that mirrors the one-month 
burden that was incurred by the Participants in developing the CAT 
NMS Plan.
    \184\ 14,407 CAT NMS Plan burden hours/12 months = 1,200.6 
burden hours for all Participants. 1,200.6 aggregate burden hours/24 
Participants = 50 burden hours per Participant for the 
Implementation Plan. Although the Commission estimated this burden 
as 52.2 hours per Participant in the Proposing Release, see note 2 
supra, at 48475, this number was reached by dividing the aggregate 
burden of 1,200.6 hours by only 23 Participants; now that there are 
24 Participants, the burden per Participant has been slightly 
reduced. For the same reason, the Commission's estimated breakdown 
of this burden has also been revised. The Commission now estimates 
that each Participant will spend, on average, 50 internal burden 
hours = (Attorney at 7 hours) + (Systems Analyst at 21.5 hours) + 
(Compliance Manager at 21.5 hours). All estimates in this section 
represent an average; the Commission expects that some Participants 
may incur greater costs and some lesser costs due to variances in 
economies of scale for Participants who share a common corporate 
parent. See, e.g., infra note 257.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In addition, the Commission estimates that it will take each 
Participant approximately 10 hours, on average, for its member of the 
Operating Committee to ensure that the Operating Committee submits the 
Implementation Plan to the CEO, President, or equivalently situated 
senior officer of each Participant, for each Participant to review the 
information contained in the Implementation Plan and for senior 
management consultations as needed, and to vote on approving the 
Implementation Plan.\185\ The Commission expects each member of the 
Operating Committee to be familiar with the process of CAT 
implementation, which should ease the task of determining whether to 
vote in favor of the Implementation Plan. Accordingly, the Commission 
estimates that each Participant will incur, on average, a one-time 
burden of 60 hours to prepare the Implementation Plan and to vote as to 
whether to approve it,\186\ for a one-time aggregate burden of 
approximately 1,440 hours.\187\
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    \185\ For the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Commission is assuming that the member of the Operating Committee is 
a Chief Regulatory Officer or a Chief Compliance Officer and will 
spend 5 hours on these tasks. However, this task could be performed 
by any person designated by the Participant to serve as its 
representative on the Operating Committee. See Section 4.2(a) of the 
CAT NMS Plan. In addition, the Commission estimates that senior 
management who receive the Implementation Plan from the Operating 
Committee will spend 5 hours in consultations, including with their 
member of the Operating Committee regarding the Implementation Plan. 
Because one individual may serve as the representative for multiple 
affiliated Participants, the Commission expects that some 
Participants may incur greater costs and some lesser costs due to 
variances in economies of scale for Participants who share a common 
corporate parent.
    \186\ 50 burden hours + 10 burden hours = 60 burden hours.
    \187\ 60 burden hours x 24 Participants = 1,440 burden hours. 
This estimate has increased because there are now 24 Participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    If the Implementation Plan is approved only by a Supermajority 
Vote, and not by a unanimous vote, the modified amendments require each 
Participant whose Operating Committee member did not vote to approve 
the Implementation Plan to separately file with the Commission an 
explanatory statement identifying itself and

[[Page 31338]]

explaining why it did not vote to approve the Implementation Plan.\188\ 
These statements shall be made publicly available by each dissenting 
Participant on its website or collectively by all Participants on the 
CAT NMS Plan website. Because there are currently 24 Participants, an 
Implementation Plan would need to be approved by at least 16 members of 
the Operating Committee to satisfy the Supermajority Vote provisions of 
the CAT NMS Plan.\189\ At maximum, then, only eight Participants would 
file an explanatory statement in connection with an Implementation Plan 
approved only by Supermajority Vote.\190\ The Commission estimates that 
each of the eight Participants submitting an explanatory statement will 
incur, on average, an initial, one-time burden of 15 hours to draft 
such statement.\191\ When this aggregate burden is averaged across all 
Participants, it amounts to approximately 5 hours per Participant or 
120 hours in aggregate.\192\
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    \188\ For the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Commission is assuming that this task will be performed by a Chief 
Regulatory Officer or a Chief Compliance Officer. See note 185 
supra.
    \189\ 24 Participants x \2/3\ Participants = 16 Participants.
    \190\ 24 Participants - 16 Participants = 8 Participants.
    \191\ The Commission bases this estimate on a full-time 
Compliance Manager and the Chief Regulatory Officer or Chief 
Compliance Officer each spending 7.5 hours to prepare the 
explanatory statement.
    \192\ 8 Participants * 15 burden hours = 120 burden hours in 
aggregate. 120 burden hours/24 Participants = 5 burden hours. This 
estimate has increased because there are now 24 Participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Commission estimates that each Participant will incur, 
on average, a one-time burden of approximately 10 hours to ensure that 
the Implementation Plan, and any explanatory statement (if applicable), 
is filed with the Commission and made publicly available on a 
website.\193\ The Commission therefore estimates an aggregate burden of 
approximately 240 hours for the Participants to publicly post and 
submit to the Commission the Implementation Plan.\194\
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    \193\ The Commission bases this estimate on a full-time 
Compliance Manager and Programmer Analyst each spending 
approximately 5 hours, for a combined total of approximately 10 
hours, to prepare and publicly post the relevant documents.
    \194\ 10 burden hours per Participant x 24 Participants = 240 
burden hours.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In total, therefore, the Commission estimates that each Participant 
will incur, on average, a one-time burden of approximately 75 hours 
\195\ and approximately 1,800 hours in aggregate to comply with the 
provisions of the proposed amendments that relate to the Implementation 
Plan.\196\
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    \195\ 50 hours + 10 hours + 5 hours + 10 hours = 75 burden 
hours.
    \196\ 75 hours x 24 Participants = 1,800 burden hours. This 
estimate has increased because there are now 24 Participants. See 
Part IV.C. infra for a dollar cost estimate of this burden.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission further estimates that each Participant will expend 
approximately $8,333.33, on average, in external public relations, 
legal, and consulting costs related to the development of the 
Implementation Plan. In the CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, the Commission 
estimated, based on information provided by the Participants, that the 
Participants had collectively spent approximately $2,400,000 in 
preparation of the CAT NMS Plan on external public relations, legal, 
and consulting costs.\197\ The Commission believes that the estimated 
burden for the Implementation Plan should be one-twelfth the amount 
estimated for the development of the CAT NMS Plan, because the 
Participants will only have 30 calendar days from the effective date of 
this amendment to prepare the Implementation Plan and because 
preparation of the Implementation Plan is a much less complex project. 
Accordingly, the Commission estimates that the Participants will expend 
approximately $200,000 in aggregate, and $8,333.33 per Participant, in 
external public relations, legal, and consulting costs related to the 
preparation of the Implementation Plan.\198\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \197\ See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at n.3287.
    \198\ $2,400,000 CAT NMS Plan costs/12 months = $200,000 for all 
Participants. $200,000/24 Participants = $8,333.33 per Participant 
for the Implementation Plan. Although the Commission estimated this 
burden as $8,695.65 per Participant in the Proposing Release, see 
note 2 supra, at 48476, this number was reached by dividing the 
aggregate burden of $200,000 by only 23 Participants; now that there 
are 24 Participants, the burden per Participant has been slightly 
reduced.
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2. Quarterly Progress Reports
    The Commission believes that each Participant will incur, on 
average, an ongoing quarterly burden of approximately 60 hours to 
confer with other Participants, to draft a Quarterly Progress Report, 
to ensure that the Operating Committee submits each Quarterly Progress 
Report to the CEO, President, or equivalently situated senior officer 
of each Participant, and to vote as to whether to approve each 
Quarterly Progress Report, as required by proposed Section 
6.6(c)(iii).\199\ This estimate is approximately the same as the burden 
related to the development and approval of the Implementation Plan, 
because the Quarterly Progress Reports require the Participants to 
prepare a detailed description explaining, quantifying, and voting to 
approve the description of their progress towards the Implementation 
Milestones laid out in the Implementation Plan, including the impact 
that any such progress might have on the target completion dates for 
Implementation Milestones that have not yet been achieved. The 
Commission believes this estimate is appropriate because the 
Participants are likely already tracking some of the information 
required to be included in the Quarterly Progress Reports.\200\ 
Accordingly, the Commission estimates, on average, an ongoing quarterly 
burden of approximately 60 hours for each Participant,\201\ an ongoing 
annual burden of approximately 240 hours for each Participant,\202\ and 
an aggregate annual burden of approximately 5,760 hours.\203\
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    \199\ All estimates in this section represent an average; the 
Commission expects that some exchanges may incur greater costs and 
some lesser costs due to variances in economies of scale for 
Participants who share a common corporate parent. See infra note 
257.
    \200\ See, e.g., Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48462 n.53 
and associated text.
    \201\ The Commission estimates that each Participant will spend, 
on average, 50 internal burden hours to confer with other 
Participants and to compile the Quarterly Progress Report = 
(Attorney at 7 hours) + (Systems Analyst at 21.5 hours) + 
(Compliance Manager at 21.5 hours). In addition the Commission 
estimates, for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, that the 
chief Compliance Officer or Chief Regulatory Officer of each 
Participant will spend 5 hours, on average, to submit the Quarterly 
Progress Report to the CEO, President, or equivalently situated 
senior officer of each Participant, to review the information 
contained in each Quarterly Progress Report and for senior 
management consultations as needed, and to vote on approving the 
Quarterly Progress Report. In addition, the Commission estimates 
that the CEO, President, or equivalently situated senior officer of 
each Participant will spend 5 hours in consultations, including with 
their member of the Operating Committee regarding each Quarterly 
Progress Report. 50 hours + 5 hours + 5 hours = 60 hours. Because 
one individual may serve as the representative for multiple 
affiliated Participants, the Commission expects that some 
Participants may incur greater costs and some lesser costs due to 
variances in economies of scale for Participants who share a common 
corporate parent. Although the Commission estimated this burden as 
62.2 hours per Participant in the Proposing Release, see note 2 
supra, at 48476-77, this estimate was partially based on the fact 
that there were only 23 Participants; now that there are 24 
Participants, the burden per Participant has been slightly reduced.
    \202\ 60 burden hours per Participant per Quarterly Progress 
Report * 4 Quarterly Progress Reports = 240 annual burden hours per 
Participant for the Quarterly Progress Reports.
    \203\ 240 annual burden hours per Participant * 24 Participants 
= 5,760 aggregate annual burden hours. This estimate has increased 
because there are now 24 Participants.
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    If any Quarterly Progress Report is approved only by a 
Supermajority Vote, and not by a unanimous vote, the proposed 
amendments require each

[[Page 31339]]

Participant whose Operating Committee member did not vote to approve 
that Quarterly Progress Report to separately file with the Commission 
an explanatory statement identifying itself and explaining why it did 
not vote to approve the Report.\204\ These statements shall be made 
publicly available by each dissenting Participant on its website or 
collectively by all Participants on the CAT NMS Plan website. Because 
there are currently 24 Participants, each Quarterly Progress Report 
would need to be approved by at least 16 members of the Operating 
Committee to satisfy the Supermajority Vote provisions of the CAT NMS 
Plan.\205\ At maximum, then, only eight Participants would file an 
explanatory statement in connection with a Quarterly Progress Report 
approved only by Supermajority Vote.\206\ The Commission estimates that 
each of the eight Participants submitting an explanatory statement will 
incur, on average, an ongoing burden of 15 hours to draft such 
statement.\207\ When this aggregate burden is averaged across all 
Participants, it amounts to an ongoing quarterly burden of 
approximately 5 hours per Participant,\208\ an ongoing annual burden of 
approximately 20 hours per Participant,\209\ and an aggregate annual 
burden of approximately 420 hours.\210\
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    \204\ For the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Commission is assuming that this task will be performed by a Chief 
Regulatory Officer or a Chief Compliance Officer. See note 185 
supra.
    \205\ See note 189 supra.
    \206\ See note 190 supra.
    \207\ See note 191 supra.
    \208\ 8 Participants * 15 burden hours = 120 burden hours in 
aggregate. 120 burden hours/24 Participants = 5 burden hours. This 
estimate has increased because there are now 24 Participants.
    \209\ 5 burden hours x 4 Quarterly Progress Reports = 20 burden 
hours. This estimate has increased because there are now 24 
Participants.
    \210\ 20 annual burden hours x 24 Participants = 480 burden 
hours. This estimate has increased because there are now 24 
Participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Additionally, the Commission estimates that each Participant will 
incur an ongoing quarterly burden, on average, of approximately 10 
hours to ensure that each Quarterly Progress Report, and any 
explanatory statement (if applicable), is filed with the Commission and 
made publicly available on a website.\211\ The Commission therefore 
estimates an annual burden, on average, of approximately 40 hours for 
each Participant,\212\ and an aggregate annual burden of 960 hours for 
all Participants,\213\ to publicly post and submit to the Commission 
the Reports.
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    \211\ The Commission bases this estimate on a full-time 
Compliance Manager and Programmer Analyst each spending 
approximately 5 hours, for a combined total of approximately 10 
hours, to prepare and publicly post the relevant documents.
    \212\ 10 burden hours per Quarterly Progress Report x 4 quarters 
= 40 annual burden hours per Participant.
    \213\ 40 annual burden hours per Participant x 24 Participants = 
960 aggregate annual burden. This estimate has increased because 
there are now 24 Participants.
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    In total, therefore, the Commission estimates that each Participant 
will incur, on average, an ongoing burden of approximately 75 hours per 
Quarterly Progress Report,\214\ for an annual average estimated burden 
of 300 hours \215\ and approximately 7,200 hours in aggregate.\216\
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    \214\ 60 hours + 5 hours + 10 hours = 75 burden hours.
    \215\ 75 hours x 4 Quarterly Progress Report = 300 hours.
    \216\ 300 hours x 24 Participants = 7,200 burden hours. See Part 
IV.C. infra for a dollar cost estimate of this burden. This estimate 
has increased because there are now 24 Participants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Similarly, the Commission estimates that each Participant will 
expend, on an ongoing basis, approximately the same amount of external 
public relations, legal, and consulting costs associated with the 
Implementation Plan on each Quarterly Progress Report. Accordingly, the 
Commission estimates, on average, an ongoing quarterly cost of 
approximately $8,333.33 for each Participant, an ongoing annual cost of 
$33,333.33 for each Participant,\217\ and an aggregate annual cost of 
approximately $800,000.\218\ A portion of these costs may be 
recoverable from Industry Members, if consistent with the Exchange Act 
and the CAT NMS Plan.\219\
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    \217\ $8,333.33 per Participant per Quarterly Progress Report * 
4 Quarterly Progress Reports = $33,333.33 per Participant per year 
for the Quarterly Progress Reports. Although the Commission 
estimated this burden as $34,782.60 per Participant in the Proposing 
Release, see supra note 2, at 48477, this estimate was partially 
based on the fact that there were only 23 Participants; now that 
there are 24 Participants, the burden per Participant has been 
slightly reduced.
    \218\ $33,333.33 per Participant * 24 Participants = $800,000 
aggregate annual cost.
    \219\ See, e.g., Article XI of the CAT NMS Plan.
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E. Collection of Information Is Mandatory

    Each collection of information discussed above is mandatory.

F. Confidentiality of Responses to Collection of Information

    Neither the Implementation Plan nor the Quarterly Progress Reports 
will be confidential. Rather, each will be publicly posted by the 
Participants on a website.

G. Retention Period for Recordkeeping Requirements

    National securities exchanges and national securities associations 
are required to retain records and information pursuant to Rule 17a-1 
under the Exchange Act.\220\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \220\ 17 CFR 240.17a-1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV. Economic Analysis

    Section 3(f) of the Exchange Act requires the Commission, whenever 
it engages in rulemaking and is required to consider or determine 
whether an action is necessary or appropriate in the public interest, 
to consider, in addition to the protection of investors, whether the 
action would promote efficiency, competition, and capital 
formation.\221\ In addition, Section 23(a)(2) of the Exchange Act 
requires the Commission, when making rules under the Exchange Act, to 
consider the impact such rules would have on competition.\222\ Exchange 
Act Section 23(a)(2) prohibits the Commission from adopting any rule 
that would impose a burden on competition not necessary or appropriate 
in furtherance of the purposes of the Exchange Act. The discussion 
below addresses the likely economic effects of the rule, including the 
likely effect of the rule on efficiency, competition, and capital 
formation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \221\ 15 U.S.C. 78c(f).
    \222\ 15 U.S.C. 78w(a)(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As discussed above and in the Proposing Release, since the adoption 
of Rule 613 in 2012, CAT implementation has experienced recurrent 
delays.\223\ These implementation delays have postponed the benefits of 
the CAT NMS Plan to investors \224\ and may have resulted in additional 
costs to Industry Members.\225\ The Commission believes that modifying 
the CAT NMS Plan to require operational transparency and provide 
financial accountability for meeting implementation milestones will 
impose more structure on the process and is appropriate to prevent any 
further delays to CAT implementation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \223\ See supra Part I; Proposing Release, supra note 2 at Part 
IV.A.2.
    \224\ See CAT NMS Plan Approval Order, supra note 1, at Section 
V.E.
    \225\ See infra Part IV.B.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments increase operational transparency by requiring 
Participants to publish a complete CAT implementation plan, and to 
publish a progress report quarterly, both of which require approval by 
a Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee.\226\ The amendments 
also establish Financial Accountability Milestones and Reduced Fee 
Recovery Rates (``RFRRs'') that take effect and increase in magnitude 
in response to delays in meeting certain Financial

[[Page 31340]]

Accountability Milestones.\227\ Thus, the amendments would shift some 
costs from Industry Members to Participants if the Participants fail to 
meet certain Financial Accountability Milestones.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \226\ See supra Part II.A. and infra Part IV.B.
    \227\ The Plan allows Participants to recover a percentage of 
certain CAT costs from Industry Members. In the event that RFRRs are 
triggered, the amendments would reduce the amount of fees that the 
Participants are allowed to recover from Industry Members according 
to the fee schedule described in Part II.B below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission is making minor changes to the economic analysis it 
made in the Proposing Release.\228\ These changes address the 
modifications the Commission is making to the amendments, which 
include: providing the Participants with additional time to prepare, 
file, and publish the Quarterly Progress Reports; eliminating the 
requirement that manual and complex options transactions, as well as 
allocation information for options transactions reported by Industry 
Members, satisfy the initial error rates specified by Section 6.5(d)(i) 
of the CAT NMS Plan by December 31, 2021; and modifying the first 
Financial Accountability Milestone, Initial Industry Member Core Equity 
Reporting, and the fee recovery schedule associated with that Financial 
Accountability Milestone. These changes to the Commission's analysis 
also address comments related to its economic analysis in the Proposing 
Release.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \228\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. Baseline

    Based on comments received, the Commission is updating its Baseline 
analysis. The Commission's analysis of the Baseline from the Proposing 
Release and changes to this analysis are discussed below.
1. Transparency of CAT Implementation Status
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission discussed how Industry 
Members obtain information about the implementation status of the CAT 
NMS Plan through several mechanisms.\229\ A few representatives of 
Industry Members are privy to information through their participation 
on the CAT Advisory Committee, but this information is not widely 
available. In addition, the Commission discussed that the Operating 
Committee provides a website with information on the CAT NMS Plan, but 
that there is no requirement in the CAT NMS Plan to keep it current. 
Furthermore, the Operating Committee provides occasional updates to 
Industry Members on the state of implementation. Finally, the 
Commission stated that Industry Members gain information about CAT 
implementation through the Industry Technical Specifications Working 
Group.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \229\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.A.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In their letter, the Participants detailed additional sources of 
public information about CAT implementation. They noted that ``FINRA 
CAT and the Participants also hold bi-weekly Industry meetings to 
communicate schedule and implementation updates and answer questions. 
Industry Member framing calls and deep dive sessions are regularly held 
so that Industry Members have input into technical specifications 
related to the CAT. As noted above, CAT LLC also conducts regular 
webinars and publishes CAT alerts on issues material to the industry 
such as connectivity methods, onboarding, and FDID reporting among 
others.'' \230\ The Commission is updating its analysis to acknowledge 
these additional sources of public information. However, as discussed 
above, the Commission continues to believe that additional disclosures 
required by the amendments will improve transparency around CAT 
implementation.\231\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \230\ See Participant Letter, at 6.
    \231\ See supra Part II.A.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Status of Implementation
    As discussed above and in the Proposing Release, there have been 
repeated delays to implementation and it remains uncertain when CAT 
will be fully implemented.\232\ The Commission stated in the Proposing 
Release and continues to believe that the multiple missed deadlines in 
the CAT NMS Plan have led to uncertainty for Industry Members 
surrounding the timeline for CAT implementation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \232\ See supra Part I.; Proposing Release, note 2 supra, at 
Part IV.A.2., for a detailed discussion of Plan implementation 
status.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Although the Participants ``acknowledge[d] the concerns underlying 
the Proposed Amendments to the CAT NMS Plan,'' they noted recent 
progress with respect to the CAT and stated that ``[t]hese and other 
factors suggest that there will be continued progress toward the 
expeditious development and implementation of the CAT.'' \233\ The 
Participants further stated that the successor Plan Processor ``has 
made substantial and rapid progress in building the CAT,'' and detailed 
this progress in their letter. The Commission acknowledges this 
progress,\234\ but remains concerned about the possibility for 
additional delays to CAT implementation. The recent steps toward 
implementation have likely decreased industry uncertainty \235\ about 
the timeline of CAT implementation, but the Commission believes that 
remaining uncertainty about the implementation timeline is likely to be 
reduced by adoption of the amendments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \233\ See Participant Letter, at 2.
    \234\ Another commenter acknowledged the improvement to the pace 
of CAT implementation. See Fidelity Letter, at 5.
    \235\ See infra Part IV.B., for further discussion of industry 
uncertainty.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Recently, the Commission granted the Participants exemptive relief 
to allow for the implementation of phased reporting to the CAT for 
Industry Members, in place of the reporting schedule set forth for 
Industry Members in the CAT NMS Plan.\236\ Further, in light of COVID-
19 and a subsequent no-action request submitted by the Participants, 
the Commission recently granted exemptive relief such that the 
Compliance Rules formulated by Participants may require core equity 
reporting for Industry Members to begin on June 22, 2020 and core 
options reporting for Industry Members to begin on July 20, 2020.\237\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \236\ See supra Part I.
    \237\ See supra Part I.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Benefits

    In the Proposing Release, the Commission stated its preliminarily 
belief that the proposed amendments offer two primary benefits.\238\ 
First, because the amendments include financial accountability 
provisions that may cause the CAT to be implemented more expeditiously 
and efficiently,\239\ investors could realize the benefits of the CAT 
sooner than they would otherwise be realized without the proposed 
amendments. Second, the Commission preliminarily believed that Industry 
Members would have more certainty surrounding the implementation 
timeline for CAT, and the timeline for retirement of OATS, reducing 
possible associated and unnecessary implementation and maintenance 
costs.\240\ However, the Commission recognized that if the Participants 
continue to miss deadlines under the amendments, it would result in 
more uncertainty for Industry Members about whether and when the 
Participants are capable of achieving CAT implementation, particularly 
if the Participants are unable to make progress

[[Page 31341]]

notwithstanding the amendment's financial accountability measures.\241\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \238\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.B.
    \239\ See infra Part IV.D.1., for comments on the Commission's 
analysis of efficiency.
    \240\ See infra Part IV.D.1., for discussion of impacts on 
efficiency of Industry Member CAT implementation.
    \241\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.B.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Commission stated that the requirement that the 
Implementation Plan and Quarterly Progress Reports be submitted to the 
CEO, President, or an equivalently situated senior officer of each 
Participant prior to the Operating Committee approval vote, is intended 
to promote senior management attention and promote accountability with 
respect to CAT implementation.\242\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \242\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    One comment from an Industry Member expressed support for the 
Commission's belief that uncertainty about the CAT implementation 
timeline and implementation delays are potentially costly to Industry 
Members.\243\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \243\ Fidelity Letter, at 3. See infra Part IV.D.1. for further 
discussion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Commenters discussed the potential benefits of increased 
operational transparency. One commenter stated that information sharing 
and good communication are key to the success of CAT.\244\ Another 
commenter stated that ``quarterly detailed reporting is appropriate and 
would provide useful information to all interested parties.'' \245\ 
However, the Participants stated that ``the proposed Quarterly Progress 
Reports would impose requirements that are both unnecessary and, in 
many instances, at odds with maintaining the security of the CAT.'' 
\246\ However, as discussed above, while the Participants have provided 
information regarding CAT implementation to the Commission, much of the 
information provided by the Participants to the Commission has not been 
shared widely with the public.\247\ In addition, the Commission takes 
concerns regarding the security of the CAT very seriously, but for the 
reasons discussed above it does not believe that the proposed 
amendments, or the examples raised by the Participants in their comment 
letter, implicate any such concerns.\248\ The Commission continues to 
believe that the amendments will provide the benefits identified in the 
Proposing Release.\249\ As discussed above, the Commission is making 
three limited modifications to the amendments, but believes these 
modifications are unlikely to significantly change the benefits of the 
amendments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \244\ See Fidelity Letter, at 3.
    \245\ See Better Markets Letter, at 7.
    \246\ See Participant Letter, at 6.
    \247\ See supra Part II.A.2.
    \248\ See id.
    \249\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.B.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The first modification provides the Participants with additional 
time to prepare, file, and publish the Quarterly Progress Reports. The 
Commission does not believe this additional time in releasing those 
reports will significantly reduce the value of the information in the 
reports to Industry Members, the public, or the Commission. The 
Commission also recognizes that providing the Participants with 
adequate time to prepare the Reports may allow modest improvements to 
the quality of information contained in the Reports; this could benefit 
users of the information contained in the Reports.
    The second modification eliminates the proposed requirements that 
manual and complex options transactions, as well as allocation 
information for options transactions reported by Industry Members, (the 
``Specified Data''), satisfy the initial error rates specified by 
Section 6.5(d)(i) of the CAT NMS Plan by December 31, 2021. As 
discussed below, the Commission believes that while this modification 
may diminish the benefits of the amendments to the extent that manual 
and complex options transaction data is not as accurate as it would 
have otherwise been, any diminishment will be limited to a subset of 
CAT transaction data and will be temporary.\250\ The Commission does 
not expect this modification will delay the retirement of OATS because 
the Specified Data is not included in OATS currently. As a result, this 
modification is unlikely to significantly reduce the benefits of the 
amendments.\251\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \250\ See infra Part IV.E.4., for further discussion of an 
alternative approach that does not provide the error rate objective 
exclusion for manual and complex options transactions, as well as 
representative order linkages and related allocation information for 
all equities and options transactions.
    \251\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Commission is modifying the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone, Initial Industry Member Core Equity 
Reporting, and the fee recovery schedule associated with that Financial 
Accountability Milestone.\252\ The amendments will now define ``Initial 
Industry Member Core Equity and Option Reporting'' as the point at 
which Industry Members (excluding Small Industry Members that do not 
report to the OATS) have begun to report: (a) Equities transaction 
data, excluding Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer 
Identifying Information, to the CAT; and (b) options transaction data, 
excluding Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer 
Identifying Information, to the CAT. The Commission is also modifying 
the amendments to provide that the target deadline for the Initial 
Industry Member Core Equity and Option Reporting milestone is July 31, 
2020.\253\ The Commission believes that this change will not 
significantly reduce the benefits of the amendments because, in light 
of the exemptive relief that the Commission has recently granted, the 
Commission believes these modifications to the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone will appropriately incentivize the 
Participants to meet the updated CAT implementation schedule because 
failing to meet those milestones will cause the Participants to incur 
RFRRs. The Commission recognizes that the financial incentives to meet 
the modified first Financial Accountability Milestone are somewhat 
reduced, because only expenses incurred after the Effective Date of the 
amendments would be subject to RFRRs and the Participants have 
presumably incurred most of the implementation expenses associated with 
this milestone already. However, the Commission is also modifying the 
fee recovery schedule for the first Financial Accountability Milestone 
such that RFRRs increase more quickly as delays to achieving the 
milestone extend. The Commission believes these adjustments increase 
the Participants' financial incentives to meet the first milestone such 
that it remains an effective measure to incentivize the Participants to 
implement CAT according to the current implementation schedule.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \252\ See supra Part II.B.2.
    \253\ See supra Part IV.A.2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. Costs

    The Commission continues to believe that the proposed amendments 
are likely to have both direct and indirect costs that are likely to be 
passed on to investors, as discussed in the Proposing Release.\254\ The 
Commission estimated that the direct costs to the Participants from the 
proposed amendments would include up to approximately $3.7MM in ongoing 
annual costs and total one-time costs of up to approximately 
$932,000.\255\ The Commission is updating its analysis of costs in 
response to public comments, certain changes to the amendments, and a 
change in the number of Participants. The Commission now estimates that 
the direct costs to the Participants from the

[[Page 31342]]

proposed amendments include up to approximately $3.8MM in ongoing 
annual costs and total one-time costs of up to approximately 
$956,000.\256\ The Commission continues to believe that if the RFRRs 
are triggered, during a one-year period during implementation, up to 
$120MM in costs of CAT implementation and operation could be shifted 
from Industry Members to Participants, but this would not change total 
direct costs to industry as a whole from the CAT NMS Plan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \254\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.C.
    \255\ These costs are detailed in the Proposing Release. See id.
    \256\ These maximum totals assume that upon each approval vote, 
eight Participants incur costs to prepare and publish statements 
explaining why they did not vote to approve the document in 
question. These revised cost estimates are discussed further below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the next sub-section, the Commission re-estimates the direct 
costs of the amendments to account for a change in the number of 
Participants. In the sub-section following that re-estimation, the 
Commission summarizes its analysis of indirect costs from the Proposing 
Release, and updates that analysis in response to comments.
Direct Costs
    The Commission estimates that the direct costs to Participants from 
the proposed amendments \257\ include up to approximately $3.8MM \258\ 
in annual costs and total one-time costs of up to approximately 
$956,000.\259\ The ongoing annual costs per Participant are comprised 
of approximate labor costs of up to $143,000 \260\ and external 
consulting costs of $33,000 \261\ to prepare, approve through 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee, publish, and when 
applicable, for each Participant whose Operating Committee member did 
not vote to approve the Implementation Plan to separately file with the 
Commission and make available on a public website an explanatory 
statement identifying itself and explaining why it did not vote to 
approve the Quarterly Progress Report.\262\ The one-time costs per 
Participant include up to $36,000 \263\ in labor costs and $8,300 \264\ 
in external consulting costs to prepare, approve through Supermajority 
Vote of the Operating Committee, publish, and when applicable, for each 
Participant whose Operating Committee member did not vote to approve 
the Implementation Plan to separately file with the Commission and make 
available on a public website an explanatory statement identifying 
itself and explaining why it did not vote to approve the Implementation 
Plan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \257\ Direct costs cited in this paragraph are quantified from 
estimates in the PRA. See supra Part III. Discussion of other direct 
costs follows discussion of costs from the PRA. The estimated costs 
represent averages; the Commission expects that some Participants 
will incur greater costs, some lesser. In calculating the costs to 
prepare, review, and vote on the Implementation Plan and Quarterly 
Progress Reports on a per Participant basis, the Commission 
recognizes that its estimates per Participant may be overstated to 
the extent that there are economies of scale for Participants who 
share a common corporate parent. Specifically, the voting 
representative for one Participant may serve as the voting 
representative on the Operating Committee for multiple affiliated 
Participants under Section 4.2(a) of the CAT NMS Plan. Once this 
representative conducts the necessary background work to vote on the 
Implementation Plan or a Quarterly Progress Report, and, if 
applicable, for the Participant to prepare an explanation of why 
this representative did not vote to approve the Implementation Plan 
or Quarterly Progress Report, the representative would not need to 
duplicate all of his or her efforts for another Participant. Thus, 
the Commission believes that its estimates may be overstated for 
some Participants in the sense that one representative reviewing and 
voting on the Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Reports 
might not require 5 hours for each exchange for which he or she is 
performing this task. On the other hand, the Commission believes 
that its estimates for Participants who are not affiliated with 
other Participants might be understated for some Participants 
because they are unable to benefit from economies of scale. 
Representatives for unaffiliated exchanges may require more than 5 
hours to perform this same task. The Commission believes that 5 
hours is a reasonable estimate of average representative time 
required.
    \258\ Assuming that each Supermajority Vote has the minimum of 
16 Participants voting to approve each Quarterly Progress Report, 
total annual ongoing maximum cost is (24 Participants x $117,424 per 
Participant + 32 explanatory statements x $6,472.50 per statement = 
$3,025,296) in labor costs plus (24 Participants x $33,333 = 
$800,000) in external consulting costs = $3,825,296 in total costs. 
See infra note 265.
    \259\ Assuming that each Supermajority Vote has the minimum of 
16 Participants voting to approve the Implementation Plan, total 
one-time maximum cost is (24 Participants x $31,514 per Participant 
= $756,324) in labor costs plus (24 Participants x $8,333 = 
$200,000) in external consulting costs = $956,324 in total costs. 
See infra note 263.
    \260\ See supra Part III.D. Annual labor costs per Participant 
assume preparation, approval through Supermajority Vote of the 
Operating Committee, and publication of four Quarterly Progress 
Reports and any accompanying statements explaining why a Participant 
did not vote to approve the Quarterly Progress Report. Preparation 
of each Quarterly Progress Report requires 7 hours of Attorney labor 
at $427 per hour; 21.5 hours of Systems Analyst labor at $270 per 
hour; 21.5 hours of Compliance Manager labor at $318 per hour. 4 x 
[($427 x 7) + ($270 x 21.5) + ($318 x 21.5)] = $62,524. Time for the 
Participant's Operating Committee Member to prepare for and vote on 
the Quarterly Progress Reports is assumed to be 5 hours at a rate of 
$545 per hour. 4 x ($545 x 5) = $10,900, using the hourly rate for a 
Chief Compliance Officer. Publication and filing of the Quarterly 
Progress Reports and any explanatory statements of the Operating 
Committee Member's vote is assumed to require 5 hours of Compliance 
Manager labor at $318 per hour and 5 hours of Programmer/Analyst 
labor at $247 per hour. 4 x ($318 x 5) + ($247 x 5) = $11,300. The 
Quarterly Progress Report shall be submitted to the President, CEO 
or equivalently situated senior officer of each Participant prior to 
the approval vote of the Operating Committee, and any subsequent 
consultation, including with their Operating Committee member, is 
assumed to require five hours of labor at $1,635 per hour. 4 x 
($1,635 x 5) = $32,700. See infra note 265, for discussion of this 
hourly rate. Total annual costs for each Participant are thus 
$62,524 + $10,900 + $11,300 + $32,700 = $117,424. If a Participant 
is required to prepare a statement explaining why it did not vote to 
approve a Quarterly Progress Report, preparation requires 7.5 hours 
of Compliance Manager Labor at $318 per hour and 7.5 hours of Chief 
Compliance Officer labor at $545 per hour. ($318 x 7.5) + ($545 x 
7.5) = $6,472.5. For each Quarterly Progress Report, 24 Participants 
will incur costs to prepare the report, but no more than 8 will 
incur costs to prepare statements explaining why they did not vote 
to approve the Quarterly Progress Report. See supra Part III.D.2. 
Consequently, there may be up to 32 such quarterly statements (4 x 
8) required annually. Thus, Quarterly Progress Report preparation, 
depending on the number of explanatory statements required, would 
have an annual aggregate maximum labor cost of (24 x $117,424) + (32 
x $6,472.5) = $3,025,296 with a per Participant average labor cost 
of $3,025,296 / 24 = $126,054. Hourly rates are based on hourly 
rates for Attorneys, Systems Analysts, Compliance Managers, Chief 
Compliance Officers, and Programmer/Analysts from SIFMA's Management 
& Professional Earnings in the Securities Industry 2013, modified by 
Commission staff to account for an 1800-hour work-year and 
inflation, and multiplied by 5.35 to account for bonuses, firm size, 
employee benefits, and overhead. Salary information for voting 
representatives uses the Chief Compliance Officer rate of from 
SIFMA's Management & Professional Earnings in the Securities 
Industry 2013, modified as above to $545 per hour.
    \261\ See supra Part III.D. External consulting costs assume 
four Quarterly Progress Reports. 4 x $8,333 = $33,333.
    \262\ These annual costs would be incurred until completion of 
CAT implementation. See supra Part III.D.2.
    \263\ See supra Part III.D.2. Preparation and approval through 
Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee of the Implementation 
Plan requires 7 hours of Attorney labor at $427 per hour; 21.5 hours 
of Systems Analyst labor at $270 per hour; 21.5 hours of Compliance 
Manager labor at $318 per hour. ($427 x 7) + ($270 x 21.5) + ($318 x 
21.5) = $15,631. Time for the Participant's Operating Committee 
Member to prepare for and vote on the Implementation plan is assumed 
to be 5 hours at a rate of $545 per hour. ($545 x 5) = $2,725, using 
the hourly rate for a Chief Compliance Officer. Publication and 
filing of the Implementation Plan and any explanatory statement of 
the Operating Committee Member's vote is assumed to require 5 hours 
of Compliance Manager labor at $318 per hour and 5 hours of 
Programmer/Analyst labor at $247 per hour. ($318 x 5) + ($247 x 5) = 
$2,825. The Implementation Plan shall be submitted to the President, 
CEO or equivalently situated senior officer of each Participant 
prior to the approval vote of the Operating Committee, and any 
subsequent consultation, including with their Operating Committee 
Member, is assumed to require five hours of labor at $1,635 per 
hour. ($1,635 x 5) = $8,175. See infra note 265, for discussion of 
this hourly rate. Total one time labor costs are $15,631 + $2,725 + 
$2,825 + $8,175 = $29,356. If an explanatory statement of the 
Operating Committee Member's vote needs to be prepared, this would 
require 7.5 hours of labor by a Compliance Manager at $318 per hour 
and 7.5 hours of labor by the Chief Compliance Officer at $545 per 
hour. ($318 x 7.5) + ($545 x 7.5) = $6,472.5. Thus, Implementation 
Plan preparation, depending on the number of explanatory statements 
required, would have an annual aggregate maximum labor cost of (24 x 
$29,356) + (8 x $6,472.5) = $756,324 with a per Participant average 
labor cost of $756,324 / 24 = $31,514. Aggregate totals assume 24 
Participants and 8 explanatory statements.
    \264\ See supra Part III.D.2.

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[[Page 31343]]

    The amendments require that both the Implementation Plan and 
Quarterly Progress Reports be submitted to the President, CEO or 
equivalently situated senior officer of each Participant prior to the 
approval vote by the Operating Committee. In connection with this 
requirement, the Commission estimates that each Participant will incur 
one-time consultation costs of $8,200 for the Implementation Plan, and 
ongoing annual costs of $32,700 for Quarterly Progress Reports until 
such time as CAT is fully implemented.\265\
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    \265\ The Commission estimates that the President, CEO or 
equivalently situated senior officer of each Participant will spend 
approximately five hours in consultations, including with the 
Participant's Operating Committee member, and estimates this will 
cause each Participant to incur labor costs of (5 x $1,635) = $8,175 
for the Implementation Plan and (4 x $8,175) = $32,700 annually for 
Quarterly Progress Reports. Hourly rates are based on hourly rates 
for Chief Compliance Officers from SIFMA's Management & Professional 
Earnings in the Securities Industry 2013, modified by Commission 
staff to account for an 1800-hour work-year and inflation, and 
multiplied by 5.35 to account for bonuses, firm size, employee 
benefits and overhead. Salary information for CEO/presidents of 
exchanges are not generally publically available as they might be 
for CEO/presidents of exchange holding groups. The Commission 
estimates an hourly rate for the President, CEO or equivalently 
situated senior officer of an exchange by using the hourly rate for 
a Chief Compliance Officer of $545 and multiplying by 3 to account 
for the expected salary differential.
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Indirect Costs
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission stated its expectation 
that the proposed amendments would have additional indirect costs.\266\ 
These indirect costs include potentially accelerated implementation 
costs to Participants, Industry Members, and Service Bureaus. 
Furthermore, there could be indirect costs related to the potential for 
inefficient acceleration of the implementation of the CAT. The 
Commission, however, continues to believe this is unlikely because the 
deadlines for Financial Accountability Milestones are aligned with the 
most recent timelines published by Participants \267\ and the RFRRs 
increase as delays persist until the fee recovery rate would become 
zero. Finally, if the RFRRs are triggered, the Commission stated that 
it is possible there could be indirect costs related to the possible 
market exit of exchanges.\268\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \266\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.C.
    \267\ One commenter criticized the Participants' timelines, 
suggesting changes to a number of interim milestones. See supra note 
125, for a discussion of this argument.
    \268\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.C.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission stated that while triggering the RFRRs would cause 
Participants to accrue additional costs because they could not recover 
these costs from Industry Members, there would be a corresponding 
financial benefit to Industry Members because they would not have to 
pay those costs.\269\ Consequently, the cost transfers from the RFRRs 
would not impose a net cost on industry as a whole.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \269\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission's assessment of the likely indirect costs of the 
amendments as adopted is unchanged from what was discussed in the 
Proposing Release, except as discussed below.\270\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \270\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.C.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Commenters noted that lack of flexibility in Financial 
Accountability Milestones might precipitate additional indirect costs. 
Commenters stated that these indirect costs could include: Lower 
quality deliverables; an incomplete CAT Repository; reduced emphasis on 
the development and publication of vital industry member guidance; and 
the implementation of Phase 2a prior to the full development of the CAT 
system. In short, one commenter stated that the ``financial penalty 
structure outlined in the Proposed Amendments has the clear potential 
to limit and short circuit the required cooperative analysis, feedback, 
and iterative update process that would result in the reduced quality 
of deliverables and place at risk CAT's key regulatory goals.'' \271\ 
The Participants further stated that some provisions of the Financial 
Accountability Milestones (particularly data error rates, the 
retirement of OATS, and sufficient inter- and intra-firm linkages 
within CAT data) are not entirely within their control. The 
Participants state, ``Faced with financial penalties for missed 
deadlines, the Participants may not be able to fully address legitimate 
industry concerns or accommodate requests for delays with respect to 
future deadlines.'' \272\ The Commission is updating its analysis to 
recognize these additional potential indirect costs of the amendments. 
Nevertheless, as discussed above, the Commission believes that the 
modifications to the Financial Accountability Milestones described 
above should alleviate commenters' concerns regarding the potential 
impact of unforeseeable or reasonable delays.\273\
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    \271\ See FIF Letter, at 3, 7-8. See also supra Part II.B.2.b.
    \272\ See Participant Letter, at 10.
    \273\ See supra Part II.B.2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Two commenters stated that the proposal may create incentives for 
Industry Members to change their CAT reporting behavior to increase the 
likelihood of a delay because triggering RFRRs reduces CAT 
implementation costs that Participants can recover from Industry 
Members, reducing Industry Member costs.\274\ The Commission believes 
this outcome is unlikely for two reasons. First, the Participants are 
regulators with regulatory authority over their Industry Members. 
Industry Members that fail to comply with CAT reporting rules would 
potentially face enforcement actions from any Participant with 
regulatory authority over them.\275\ While an Industry Member's 
noncompliance with CAT reporting rules might contribute to triggering 
RFRRs which could financially benefit all Industry Members by shifting 
costs that may have been recoverable through CAT fees by the 
Participants, the costs of any enforcement action brought by 
Participants with regulatory authority over that Industry Member would 
not be shared across Industry Members and those enforcement costs could 
include reputational costs.\276\ Second, as discussed above, the 
Commission believes that delays to CAT implementation are costly to 
Industry Members. Industry Member reporting problems could prolong the 
costly period of duplicative reporting that Industry Members face. 
Consequently, the Commission believes that Industry Members are 
unlikely to minimize their implementation costs by taking actions that 
could trigger RFRRs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \274\ See Better Markets Letter, at 7-8; Participant Letter, at 
8-9.
    \275\ See, e.g., NYSE Rule 6830, Consolidated Audit Trail--
Industry Member Data Reporting; Nasdaq General Equities and Options 
Rule 7, Section 3, Consolidated Audit Trail--Industry Member Data 
Reporting.
    \276\ If Industry Members collectively believe that Participants 
are unlikely to take enforcement actions related to CAT reporting, 
then Industry Members might believe the potential benefits of 
triggering RFRRs outweigh the risk of potential enforcement actions 
related to CAT reporting. However, given that this argument hinges 
on Industry Members being motivated to trigger RFRRs to avoid costs, 
it logically follows that the Participants would also be motivated 
to avoid triggering RFRRs to avoid costs and would thus be likely to 
take those enforcement actions necessary to avoid triggering RFRRs. 
The Commission believes that Industry Members generally understand 
that the Participants will enforce their rules, because the 
Participants have an obligation under the Exchange Act to enforce 
compliance by their members with the Exchange Act, the rules and 
regulations thereunder, and the Participants' own rules.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As discussed above, the Commission is making certain changes to the 
amendments, but believes these changes address concerns that commenters 
raised about the proposed amendments and are unlikely to significantly 
affect the costs of the amendments.\277\ The

[[Page 31344]]

first modification to the amendments provides the Participants with 
additional time to prepare, file, and publish the Quarterly Progress 
Reports. The Commission believes it is possible the additional time 
provided to complete and publish those Reports may provide minor 
reductions to the Participants' costs because the longer timeframe to 
prepare the Reports may allow more efficient scheduling of human 
resources, such as avoiding overtime.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \277\ See supra Part II.B.2., for further discussion of comments 
on the proposed amendments and the Commission's modifications to the 
amendments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The second modification eliminates the proposed requirement of the 
December 31, 2021 Financial Accountability Milestone that the Specified 
Data satisfy the initial error rates specified by Section 6.5(d)(i) of 
the CAT NMS Plan.\278\ As discussed below, the Commission believes that 
while this modification may reduce implementation costs for both 
Participants and Industry Members, it does not believe any reduction 
will significantly impact the magnitude of implementation costs. 
Rather, this modification is more of an efficiency improvement than a 
significant cost reduction.\279\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \278\ See infra Part IV.E.4., for further discussion of costs 
and benefits of the alternative approach proposed in the Proposing 
Release.
    \279\ See infra Part IV.D.1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, the Commission is modifying the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone, Initial Industry Member Core Equity 
Reporting, and the fee recovery schedule associated with that milestone 
as discussed above.\280\ The Commission believes the Participants will 
need to incur similar costs to achieve the objectives associated with 
the modified milestone in order to meet the Financial Accountability 
Milestone on July 31, 2020 for two reasons. First, while shifting the 
first milestone date from April to July 2020 may result in additional 
costs being potentially subjected to RFRRs from the first Financial 
Accountability Milestone, specifically those related to operating the 
Plan and the Central Repository from April 30, 2020 to July 31, 2020, 
these costs are no longer part of the second Financial Accountability 
Milestone and are no longer subject to RFRRs related to the December 
31, 2020 milestone date. Second, the Commission believes that it is 
unlikely that the Participants will fail to meet the July 31, 2020 
milestone objectives because it believes the milestone dates are 
reasonable and feasible deadlines.\281\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \280\ See supra Part IV.B.
    \281\ See supra Part I.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

D. Impact on Efficiency, Competition, and Capital Formation

    The Commission's analysis of impacts on efficiency, competition and 
capital formation presented in the Proposing Release are summarized 
below.\282\ The Commission is making minor changes in its analysis to 
recognize minor improvements in efficiency from changes to the 
amendments as adopted, but its conclusions regarding effects on 
competition and capital formation are not materially affected by the 
changes to the amendments or public comments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \282\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Efficiency
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission stated its preliminary 
belief that the proposed amendments would improve the efficiency of 
Industry Member implementation of CAT reporting. However, the 
Commission preliminarily believed that the financial accountability 
provisions could incentivize Participants to inefficiently delay 
certain activities associated with later milestones if Participants 
believe there is a significant risk of missing an earlier Financial 
Accountability Milestone.
    The Commission is updating its analysis to recognize a possible 
improvement to efficiency relative to the amendments as proposed due to 
the elimination of the requirement that the Specified Data satisfy the 
initial error rates specified by Section 6.5(d)(i) of the CAT NMS Plan 
by December 31, 2021. As discussed below,\283\ the Commission believes 
that the brief time interval between the date on which Industry Members 
commence reporting these transactions to CAT and the December 31, 2021 
Financial Accountability Milestone date may not allow Participants to 
efficiently address any error rate problems in this data. As a result, 
including this error rate target in the December 31, 2021 Financial 
Accountability Milestone date might have caused inefficiencies in 
allocation of Participant and Industry Member staff time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \283\ See infra Part IV.E.4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Two commenters agreed with the Commission's conclusion that the 
amendments are likely to improve efficiency. One commenter agreed with 
the Commission that ``additional Participant Accountability Milestones 
should facilitate the completion of the implementation phase(s) of CAT 
in an efficient, expeditious and risk-averse manner, thereby reducing 
the risk of further delay.'' \284\ However, this commenter 
characterized its agreement on efficiency improvements as ``cautious'' 
due to specific potential indirect costs.\285\ A second commenter 
agreed with the Commission's assessment of efficiency improvements for 
Industry Member implementation efforts, stating that ``[d]elays in CAT 
implementation have cost Industry Members both in hard dollars and 
opportunity costs''; the commenter also discussed resources devoted to 
CAT implementation or maintaining potentially duplicative reporting 
systems, stating ``the sooner the CAT is fully implemented, the sooner 
these duplicative reporting systems can be retired, and internal 
resources devoted to building the CAT, reallocated to other projects 
and initiatives.'' \286\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \284\ See FIF Letter, at 2.
    \285\ See id., at 7; see also supra Part IV.C., for further 
discussion of indirect costs.
    \286\ See Fidelity Letter, at 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Competition
a. Competitive Baseline
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission described the structure of 
the market for trading in NMS securities, as of that time.\287\ While 
the Commission's analysis of the state of competition in the Proposing 
Release is fundamentally unchanged, the market for trading services in 
options and equities currently consists of 23 national securities 
exchanges and FINRA, all of which are Participants, as well as off-
exchange trading venues, including broker-dealer internalizers, and 33 
NMS stock alternative trading systems (``ATSs''),\288\ which are not 
Participants. The exchanges are currently controlled by 7 separate 
entities; three of these operate a single exchange.\289\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \287\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.2.
    \288\ As of April 30, 2020, there are 33 national market system 
ATSs operating pursuant to an initial Form ATS-N. See 17 CFR 
242.304. A list of ATSs, including access to initial Form ATS-N 
filings that are effective, can be found on the Commission website 
at https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/form-ats-n-filings.htm.
    \289\ Cboe Global Markets, Inc. controls Cboe Exchange, Inc., 
Cboe C2 Exchange, Inc., Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., Cboe BYX Exchange, 
Inc., Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc., and Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc.; Miami 
International Holdings, Inc. controls Miami International Securities 
Exchange LLC, MIAX Emerald, LLC, and MIAX PEARL, LLC; Nasdaq, Inc. 
controls Nasdaq BX, Inc., Nasdaq GEMX, LLC, Nasdaq ISE, LLC, Nasdaq 
MRX, LLC, Nasdaq PHLX, LLC, and The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC; 
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. controls New York Stock Exchange, 
LLC, NYSE Arca, Inc., NYSE American LLC, NYSE Chicago, Inc., and 
NYSE National, Inc. The three entities that control a single-
exchange are IEX Group, Inc. which controls Investors' Exchange LLC, 
BOX Holdings Group LLC which controls BOX Exchange LLC, and LTSE 
Group, Inc. which controls Long-Term Stock Exchange, Inc.

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[[Page 31345]]

b. Competitive Effects
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission stated its preliminary 
belief that the proposed amendments might have competitive effects on 
the market for NMS security trading services and the market for equity 
listings.\290\ In the case that RFRRs are triggered, one or more 
exchanges might exit these markets, although the Commission continues 
to believe that this is unlikely. The Commission stated its belief that 
triggering an RFRR could also temporarily affect competition among 
exchanges and ATSs and broker-dealer internalizers, but did not believe 
the effects would be significant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \290\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission preliminarily believed that is it unlikely that 
exchanges would exit the market for NMS security trading services or 
equity listings if the RFRRs in the proposed amendments are triggered 
because such exchanges would be able to secure additional capital from 
a larger exchange group, or directly from capital markets.\291\ If an 
exchange were to exit, the Commission continues to believe that this 
would not significantly impact competition in the market for exchange 
trading services or the market for equity listings because these 
markets are served by multiple competitors that are likely to swiftly 
meet any unsatisfied demand caused by the exit of a competitor.\292\ If 
the RFRRs were triggered, the Commission continues to believe that it 
could temporarily affect competition between exchanges and ATSs and 
broker-dealer internalizers because of transient changes in 
Participants' and Industry Members' abilities to invest in their 
trading platforms.\293\ However, the Commission continues to believe 
that effects, if any, would not be significant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \291\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.2.
    \292\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.2.b.
    \293\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Capital Formation
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission stated its belief that the 
amendments would have negligible mixed effects on capital 
formation.\294\ The Commission preliminarily believed that the 
amendments' improvements to investor protections might allow 
improvements to capital formation described in the CAT NMS Plan 
Approval Order to be realized sooner than they would have otherwise 
been in the absence of the proposed amendments. However, if RFRRs are 
triggered, exchanges could experience short-term, transitory negative 
effects on exchange capital formation because the exchanges would face 
additional costs and may not be able to invest in projects or return 
profits to shareholders that they would otherwise. The Commission 
continues to believe that the amendments would not permanently affect 
investors' assessment of expected profitability for exchanges, and thus 
would not reduce this capital formation long-term.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \294\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.D.3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

E. Alternatives

1. Fixed versus Relative Financial Accountability Milestone Dates
    Under the adopted amendments, Financial Accountability Milestone 
dates are fixed calendar dates. In the Proposing Release, the 
Commission considered an alternative approach that would use relative 
Financial Accountability Milestone dates in a scenario when a Financial 
Accountability Milestone was not met on schedule.\295\ Under this 
alternative approach, the duration of the time period between two 
Financial Accountability Milestone dates would be fixed but the 
Financial Accountability Milestone dates would be relative. Thus, if a 
Financial Accountability Milestone were not achieved on schedule, the 
next Financial Accountability Milestone date would be delayed such that 
the duration between Financial Accountability Milestone dates was 
unchanged.\296\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \295\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.E.1.
    \296\ The alternative could be structured such that upon the 
achievement of one Financial Accountability Milestone, the next 
Financial Accountability Milestone date would become the later of 
the Financial Accountability Milestone date specified in the 
amendments or the relative date from this alternative approach. This 
approach would prevent the subsequent relative Financial 
Accountability Milestone date from becoming earlier in the event 
that the Participants achieve a Financial Accountability Milestone 
ahead of schedule. This would avoid the problem of incentivizing the 
Participants to delay Financial Accountability Milestone achievement 
to avoid accelerating Financial Accountability Milestone dates, and 
would mitigate any risk Industry Members would have from 
accelerating Financial Accountability Milestone dates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The primary economic impact of this approach relative to the 
amendments as adopted is that it avoids a risk inherent in the fixed 
Financial Accountability Milestone date approach of the amendments as 
adopted. Under the fixed Financial Accountability Milestone date 
approach, if the Participants encounter a delay early in the 
implementation process that causes them to miss a Financial 
Accountability Milestone date by a significant margin, it may become 
more difficult for them to meet future Financial Accountability 
Milestone dates.
    This alternative approach has two significant costs relative to the 
amendments as adopted. First, in a case where a significant delay 
arises in connection with an early Financial Accountability Milestone 
such that financial RFRRs are triggered, the Participants may be 
incentivized to delay meeting the requirements of that Financial 
Accountability Milestone in order to give themselves more time to 
achieve later Financial Accountability Milestones in order to decrease 
their risk of triggering RFRRs for those later Financial Accountability 
Milestones.
    The second likely additional cost relative to the amendments as 
adopted is that the alternative approach would make the ultimate CAT 
implementation timeline less certain than in the amendments as adopted, 
because early delays would push back implementation dates for later 
phases of implementation.
    The Commission did not receive any comments on the alternative and, 
for the reasons discussed throughout the release, the Commission is 
adopting the amendments substantially as proposed.
2. Different Timelines for Onset of RFRRs
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission discussed alternative 
approaches with Financial Accountability Milestone dates either earlier 
or later than the dates in the amendments as adopted.\297\ These 
approaches would have certain additional benefits and costs as compared 
to the amendments as adopted. The Commission stated that alternative 
milestone dates that are not generally aligned with dates published by 
or discussed with the Participants are less likely to reflect realistic 
expectations for the Participants in implementing the CAT.\298\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \297\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.E.2.
    \298\ See id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission did not receive any comments on the alternative and, 
for the reasons discussed throughout the release, the Commission is 
adopting the amendments substantially as proposed.
3. Alternate Magnitudes of RFRRs
    In the Proposing Release, the Commission discussed alternative 
approaches with different levels of RFRRs.\299\ Under the amendments as

[[Page 31346]]

adopted, for each period of up to 90 days, or 45 days in the case of 
the first Financial Accountability Milestone, by which the Participants 
miss Financial Accountability Milestone dates, they would trigger RFRRs 
such that they would be allowed to recover 25 percent less of the CAT 
costs they would otherwise recover from Industry Members. Alternative 
approaches could have higher or lower marginal RFRRs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \299\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at Part IV.E.3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission preliminarily believed that alternative approaches 
with higher marginal RFRRs (allowing the Participants to recover a 
lower share of CAT costs from Industry Members when RFRRs are 
triggered) would potentially further incentivize the Participants to 
meet Financial Accountability Milestone deadlines, but would also 
increase the risk of inefficient acceleration of CAT implementation.
    The Commission stated its preliminary belief that alternative 
approaches with lower RFRRs (allowing the Participants to recover a 
higher share of CAT costs from Industry Members when RFRRs are 
triggered) would decrease the incentives Participants have to meet 
Financial Accountability Milestone deadlines, but would reduce the risk 
of inefficient acceleration of CAT implementation.
    The Commission did not receive any comments on the alternative and, 
for the reasons discussed throughout the release, the Commission is 
adopting the amendments substantially as proposed.
4. Requiring Error Rates for Manual and Complex Options Transactions, 
as Well as Allocation Information for All Options Transactions To 
Conform to Standards Set in the CAT NMS Plan on December 31, 2021
    The Commission's proposed amendments would have required the 
Participants to achieve initial error rate targets for the Specified 
Data that are described in the CAT NMS Plan, by the December 31, 2021 
milestone. Under the amendments as adopted, the December 31, 2021 
Financial Accountability Milestone will not include those initial error 
rates for the Specified Data. The requirement will remain part of the 
December 31, 2022 milestone.
    Under the proposed approach, error rates for the Specified Data 
would likely be lower in the period between when Industry Members begin 
reporting this data and December 31, 2021 because Participants would 
likely have devoted more resources in that period to measuring and 
lowering these error rates since they were included in the December 31, 
2021 milestone. However, the Commission believes that this reduction in 
error rates would be unlikely to be significant because the time 
between the initiation of reporting of the Specified Data to CAT and 
the milestone date of December 31, 2021 is relatively short. It is not 
clear to the Commission that the Participants would have sufficient 
time to meaningfully address error rate deficiencies for the Specified 
Data during that interval of time.\300\ Furthermore, the Commission 
believes it is likely the Participants can more efficiently address 
error rates in their members' data over a more reasonable period of 
time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \300\ Under the amendments as adopted, the Financial 
Accountability Milestones will not include these error rates for an 
additional year for the Specified Data. The Commission believes that 
Participants are likely to address problems in error rates in the 
Specified Data during the additional year because excessive errors 
in this data may trigger RFRRs at the December 31, 2022 milestone. 
However, the Commission acknowledges it is possible that error rates 
for the Specified Data will be higher than they would have been 
under the proposed amendments during that additional year because 
those error rates will not cause RFRRs to be triggered during that 
year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Under the proposed approach with the earlier milestone date for the 
error rates in question, it is possible that Participants would believe 
that triggering RFRRs was unavoidable. There is little time between the 
commencement of reporting of the Specified Data and the milestone date 
at which the target error rate would apply. This time span might be 
inadequate for the Participants to take corrective measures if the 
error rates exceeded the target specified in the CAT NMS Plan. 
Consequently, Participants might be less incentivized to achieve error 
rate targets for other CAT data elements if they believed it were 
unlikely they could achieve the error rates for the Specified Data, 
leaving them disincentivized to achieve other error rate targets 
because they believed RFRRs were unavoidable. This could result in 
higher error rates in other CAT data. In contrast, under the amendments 
as adopted with the later Financial Accountability Milestone date for 
the error rates in question, Participants will not be disincentivized 
by a Specified Data error target that may not be reasonable so quickly 
after the reporting of this data commences.
    It is likely that the proposed approach with the earlier milestone 
dates for the error rates in question would be more costly both to 
Participants and Industry Members than the approach as adopted. Because 
the second Financial Accountability Milestone date occurs so quickly 
after the initiation of the Specified Data reporting, Participant 
efforts to address deficiencies in error rates might be made through 
channels that are less efficient in terms of overall quality of CAT 
data than they would be otherwise. For example, in an effort to avoid 
missing the error rate targets for the Specified Data, Participants 
might assign fewer staff persons to work with Industry Members to 
correct errors in core equities and options data that is foundational 
for CAT data to be used by regulators.
    Finally, under the approach as adopted with a later Financial 
Accountability Milestone date for the error rates in question, 
regulators should still have access to sufficiently accurate and 
reliable options transactional data that will enable regulators to 
analyze the full lifecycle of most orders and conduct new and 
sophisticated analyses of the markets, including options market 
reconstruction and cross-market analyses across the majority of full 
order lifecycles. The Commission believes that the approach as adopted 
should not delay the retirement of OATS because the Specified Data is 
not included in OATS currently. The Commission acknowledges that error 
rates for the Specified Data might be higher than for other CAT data 
initially under the amendments as adopted, but Participants will need 
to achieve the error rate targets specified by Section 6.5(d)(i) of the 
CAT NMS Plan to satisfy the third and final milestone under the 
amendments, so any diminishment of data quality is likely to be 
temporary.

V. Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (``RFA'') \301\ requires Federal 
agencies, in promulgating rules, to consider the impact of those rules 
on small entities. Section 603(a) \302\ of the Administrative Procedure 
Act,\303\ as amended by the RFA, generally requires the Commission to 
undertake a regulatory flexibility analysis of all proposed rules, or 
proposed rule amendments, to determine the impact of such rulemaking on 
``small entities.'' \304\ Section 605(b) of the RFA states that this 
requirement shall not apply ``to any proposed or final rule if the head 
of the agency certifies that the rule will not, if promulgated, have a 
significant

[[Page 31347]]

economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.'' \305\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \301\ 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.
    \302\ 5 U.S.C. 603(a).
    \303\ 5 U.S.C. 551 et seq.
    \304\ The Commission has adopted definitions for the term 
``small entity'' for purposes of Commission rulemaking in accordance 
with the RFA. Those definitions, as relevant to this proposed 
rulemaking, are set forth in 17 CFR 240.0-10. See Securities 
Exchange Act Release No. 18451 (January 28, 1982), 47 FR 5215 
(February 4, 1982) (File No. AS-305).
    \305\ 5 U.S.C. 605(b).
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    The Commission certified in the Proposing Release, pursuant to 
Section 605(b) of the RFA, that the proposed amendments to the CAT NMS 
Plan would not, if adopted, have a significant impact on a substantial 
number of small entities.\306\ The Commission received no comments on 
the RFA certification contained in the Proposing Release.
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    \306\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48488.
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    As explained in the Proposing Release, the amendments to the CAT 
NMS Plan only impose requirements on national securities exchanges 
registered with the Commission under Section 6 of the Exchange Act and 
FINRA.\307\ With respect to the national securities exchanges, the 
Commission's definition of a small entity is an exchange that has been 
exempt from the reporting requirements of Rule 601 of Regulation NMS, 
and is not affiliated with any person (other than a natural person) 
that is not a small business or small organization.\308\ None of the 
national securities exchanges registered under Section 6 of the 
Exchange Act that would be subject to the proposed rule are ``small 
entities'' for the purposes of the RFA. In addition, FINRA is not a 
``small entity.'' \309\ For these reasons, the amendments will not 
apply to any ``small entities.''
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    \307\ See id.
    \308\ See 17 CFR 240.0-10(e).
    \309\ See Proposing Release, supra note 2, at 48488.
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    For these reasons, the Commission again certifies that the 
amendments, as modified and adopted, will not have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities for the 
purposes of the RFA.

VI. Other Matters

    Pursuant to the Congressional Review Act,\310\ the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs has designated these rules as not a 
``major rule,'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).
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    \310\ 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq.
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    If any of the provisions of these final rules, or the application 
thereof to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, such 
invalidity shall not affect other provisions or application of such 
provisions to other persons or circumstances that can be given effect 
without the invalid provision or application.

VII. Statutory Authority and Text of the Amendments to the CAT NMS Plan

    Pursuant to the Exchange Act and, particularly, Sections 2, 3(b), 
5, 6, 11A, 15, 15A, 17(a) and (b), 19, and 23(a) thereof, 15 U.S.C. 
78b, 78c(b), 78e, 78f, 78k-1, 78o, 78o-3, 78q(a) and (b), 78s, and 
78w(a), and pursuant to Rule 608(a)(2) and (b)(2),\311\ the Commission 
amends the CAT NMS Plan in the manner set forth below.
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    \311\ 17 CFR 242.608(a)(2) and (b)(2). These provisions enable 
the Commission to propose amendments to any effective NMS Plan by 
``publishing the text thereof, together with a statement of the 
purpose of such amendment,'' and providing ``interested persons an 
opportunity to submit written comments.''
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    Additions are italicized; deletions are [bracketed].
* * * * *
Section 1.1 Definitions. As used throughout this Agreement 
(including, for the avoidance of doubt, the Exhibits, Appendices, 
Attachments, Recitals and Schedules identified in this Agreement):
* * * * *
    ``Financial Accountability Milestone'' means, as the case may 
be, Full Implementation of Core Equity Reporting, Full Availability 
and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality, 
and Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements.
* * * * *
    ``Full Availability and Regulatory Utilization of Transactional 
Database Functionality'' means the point at which: (a) reporting to 
the Order Audit Trail System (``OATS'') is no longer required for 
new orders; (b) Industry Member reporting for equities transactions 
and simple electronic options transactions, excluding Customer 
Account Information, Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying 
Information, with sufficient intra-firm linkage, inter-firm linkage, 
national securities exchange linkage, trade reporting facilities 
linkage, and representative order linkages (including any equities 
allocation information provided in an Allocation Report) to permit 
the Participants and the Commission to analyze the full lifecycle of 
an order across the national market system, from order origination 
through order execution or order cancellation, is developed, tested, 
and implemented at a 5% Error Rate or less; (c) Industry Member 
reporting for manual options transactions and complex options 
transactions, excluding Customer Account Information, Customer-ID, 
and Customer Identifying Information, with all required linkages to 
permit the Participants and the Commission to analyze the full 
lifecycle of an order across the national market system, from order 
origination through order execution or order cancellation, including 
any options allocation information provided in an Allocation Report, 
is developed, tested, and fully implemented; (d) the query tool 
functionality required by Section 6.10(c)(i)(A) and Appendix D, 
Sections 8.1.1-8.1.3, Section 8.2.1, and Section 8.5 incorporates 
the data described in conditions (b)-(c) and is available to the 
Participants and to the Commission; and (e) the requirements of 
Section 6.10(a) are met. This Financial Accountability Milestone 
shall be considered complete as of the date identified in a 
Quarterly Progress Report meeting the requirements of Section 
6.6(c).
    ``Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements'' means the 
point at which the Participants have satisfied all of their 
obligations to build and implement the CAT, such that all CAT system 
functionality required by Rule 613 and the CAT NMS Plan has been 
developed, successfully tested, and fully implemented at the initial 
Error Rates specified by Section 6.5(d)(i) or less, including 
functionality that efficiently permits the Participants and the 
Commission to access all CAT Data required to be stored in the 
Central Repository pursuant to Section 6.5(a), including Customer 
Account Information, Customer-ID, Customer Identifying Information, 
and Allocation Reports, and to analyze the full lifecycle of an 
order across the national market system, from order origination 
through order execution or order cancellation, including any related 
allocation information provided in an Allocation Report. This 
Financial Accountability Milestone shall be considered complete as 
of the date identified in a Quarterly Progress Report meeting the 
requirements of Section 6.6(c).
    ``Full Implementation of Core Equity Reporting Requirements'' 
means the point at which: (a) Industry Member reporting (excluding 
reporting by Small Industry Members that are not OATS reporters) for 
equities transactions, excluding Customer Account Information, 
Customer-ID, and Customer Identifying Information, is developed, 
tested, and implemented at a 5% Error Rate or less and with 
sufficient intra-firm linkage, inter-firm linkage, national 
securities exchange linkage, and trade reporting facilities linkage 
to permit the Participants and the Commission to analyze the full 
lifecycle of an order across the national market system, excluding 
linkage of representative orders, from order origination through 
order execution or order cancellation; and (b) the query tool 
functionality required by Section 6.10(c)(i)(A) and Appendix D, 
Sections 8.1.1-8.1.3 and Section 8.2.1 incorporates the Industry 
Member equities transaction data described in condition (a) and is 
available to the Participants and to the Commission. This Financial 
Accountability Milestone shall be considered complete as of the date 
identified in a Quarterly Progress Report meeting the requirements 
of Section 6.6(c).
* * * * *
    ``Initial Industry Member Core Equity and Option Reporting'' 
means the reporting by Industry Members (excluding Small Industry 
Members that are not OATS reporters) of both: (a) equities 
transaction data, excluding Customer Account Information, Customer-
ID, and Customer Identifying Information; and (b) options 
transaction data, excluding Customer Account Information, Customer-
ID, and Customer Identifying Information.
* * * * *

ARTICLE VI

FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES OF CAT SYSTEM

Section 6.1.-Section 6.5. No change.

[[Page 31348]]

Section 6.6. Written Assessments, Audits and Reports.
* * * * *
    (c) Implementation Plan and Quarterly Progress Reports.
    (i) Within 30 calendar days following the effective date of this 
provision, the Participants shall file with the Commission and make 
publicly available on each of their websites, or collectively on the 
CAT NMS Plan website, a complete CAT implementation plan that 
includes the Participants' timeline for achieving the objective 
milestones setting forth how and when the Participants will 
facilitate the achievement of Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan 
Requirements (the ``Implementation Plan''). The Implementation Plan 
shall include:
    (A) For each of the objective milestones set forth in Section 
C.10 of Appendix C of this Agreement to assess progress toward 
implementation of the CAT, the completion date and a description of 
the status; and
    (B) For each of the Financial Accountability Milestones, the 
completion date and a description of the status.
    If the Participants decide to complete any of the milestones 
identified in the Implementation Plan by releasing functionality in 
a phased approach, the Implementation Plan shall describe each 
phased release necessary to achieve the completion of the relevant 
milestone and provide completion dates for each such release 
identified.
    (ii) Within 30 calendar days after the end of each calendar 
quarter, Participants shall file with the Commission and make 
publicly available on each of their websites, or collectively on the 
CAT NMS Plan website, a complete report that provides a detailed 
description of the progress made by the Participants during that 
calendar quarter toward achieving each of the milestones set forth 
in the Implementation Plan (the ``Quarterly Progress Report''). If, 
subsequent to the publication of the Implementation Plan, the 
Participants decide to complete any of the milestones set forth 
therein by releasing functionality in a phased approach, each 
Quarterly Progress Report shall reflect this change by describing 
the phases necessary to achieve the completion of the relevant 
milestone and providing the information specified below for each 
phase. The Participants shall file and make publicly available the 
first of such reports within 30 calendar days after the end of the 
calendar quarter in which the Participants filed and made publicly 
available the Implementation Plan.
    (A) For each milestone completed by the end of a given calendar 
quarter, the report shall include the following: (1) The CAT 
implementation plan completion date, (2) the date on which the 
milestone was completed, and (3) a description of any variance from 
the Implementation Plan.
    (B) For each milestone in progress at the end of a given 
calendar quarter, the report shall include the following: (1) The 
CAT implementation plan completion date, (2) the currently targeted 
completion date, and (3) a description of:
    (a) The current status of the milestone;
    (b) any difference between the CAT implementation plan 
completion date and the currently targeted completion date, 
including the basis for making the adjustment and the impact of this 
adjustment on any other milestone; and
    (c) any other factual indicators that demonstrate the current 
level of completion with respect to the milestone.
    (C) For each milestone that has not yet been initiated by the 
end of a given calendar quarter, the report shall include the 
following: (1) The CAT implementation plan completion date, (2) the 
currently targeted completion date, and (3) a description of:
    (a) The current status of the milestone; and
    (b) any difference between the Implementation Plan completion 
date and the currently targeted completion date, including the basis 
for making the adjustment and the impact of this adjustment on any 
other milestone.
    (iii) The Implementation Plan and each Quarterly Progress Report 
shall be approved by at least a Supermajority Vote of the Operating 
Committee before such documents are filed with the Commission or 
made publicly available on each of the Participant websites or 
collectively on the CAT NMS Plan website. However, if the 
Implementation Plan or any Quarterly Progress Report is approved 
only by a Supermajority Vote of the Operating Committee, and not by 
a unanimous vote of the Operating Committee (including, for the 
avoidance of doubt, all members of the Operating Committee, whether 
or not present and whether or not recused), each Participant whose 
Operating Committee member did not vote to approve the 
Implementation Plan or Quarterly Progress Report shall separately 
file with the Commission a statement identifying itself and 
explaining why the member did not vote to approve the Implementation 
Plan or Quarterly Progress Report. These statements shall be made 
publicly available by each dissenting Participant on its website or 
collectively by all Participants on the CAT NMS Plan website. The 
Operating Committee shall submit the Implementation Plan and 
Quarterly Progress Reports to the Chief Executive Officer, 
President, or an equivalently situated senior officer of each 
Participant, prior to being voted on by the Operating Committee.
* * * * *

ARTICLE XI

FUNDING OF THE COMPANY

Section 11.1.-Section 11.5. No change.
Section 11.6. Funding Incentives for Post-Amendment Expenses. 
Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, this Section shall apply 
with respect to all fees, costs, and expenses (including legal and 
consulting fees, costs, and expenses) incurred by or for the Company 
in connection with the development, implementation, and operation of 
the CAT from the effective date of this Section until such time as 
Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements has been achieved 
(``Post-Amendment Expenses'').
    (a) The following conditions shall apply to the collection of 
any fees established by the Operating Committee or implemented by 
the Participants to recover a portion of Post-Amendment Expenses 
from Industry Members (``Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees'').
    (i) The Participants will be entitled to collect the full amount 
of:
    (A) Any Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees established or 
implemented to recover Post-Amendment Expenses incurred from the 
effective date of this Section to the date of Initial Industry 
Member Core Equity and Option Reporting (``Period 1''), so long as 
such date is no later than July 31, 2020;
    (B) Any Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees established or 
implemented to recover the Post-Amendment Expenses incurred from the 
date immediately following the achievement of Initial Industry 
Member Core Equity and Option Reporting to the date of Full 
Implementation of Core Equity Reporting (``Period 2''), so long as 
such date is no later than December 31, 2020;
    (C) Any Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees established or 
implemented to recover the Post-Amendment Expenses incurred from the 
date immediately following the achievement of Full Implementation of 
Core Equity Reporting to the date of Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality 
(``Period 3''), so long as such date is no later than December 31, 
2021; and
    (D) Any Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees established or 
implemented to recover the Post-Amendment Expenses incurred from the 
date immediately following the achievement of Full Availability and 
Regulatory Utilization of Transactional Database Functionality to 
the date of Full Implementation of CAT NMS Plan Requirements 
(``Period 4''), so long as such date is no later than December 30, 
2022.
    (ii) The amount of Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees that the 
Participants are entitled to collect for Period 1 will be reduced 
according to the following schedule if the Participants miss the 
deadline set forth for that Period:
    (A) By 25% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by less than 45 days;
    (B) By 50% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by 45 days or more, but less than 90 days;
    (C) By 75% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by 90 days or more, but less than 135 days; 
and
    (D) By 100% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(A) by 135 days or more.
    (iii) The amount of Post-Amendment Industry Member Fees that the 
Participants are entitled to collect for Periods 2, 3, and 4 will be 
reduced according to the following schedule if the Participants miss 
the deadline set forth for that Period:
    (A) By 25% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(B)-(D) by less than 90 days;
    (B) By 50% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(B)-(D) by 90 days or more, but less than 180 
days;
    (C) By 75% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(B)-(D) by 180 days or more, but less than 270 
days; and

[[Page 31349]]

    (D) By 100% if the Participants miss the deadline set forth in 
Section 11.6(a)(i)(B)-(D) by 270 days or more.
    (iv) The Participants will only be permitted to collect Post-
Amendment Industry Member Fees for Period 1, Period 2, Period 3, or 
Period 4 at the end of each respective Period.
    (b) In all CAT NMS Plan amendments submitted by the Operating 
Committee to the Commission pursuant to Rule 608(b)(3)(i), and in 
all filings submitted by the Participants to the Commission under 
Section 19(b) of the Exchange Act, to establish or implement Post-
Amendment Industry Member Fees pursuant to this Article, the 
Operating Committee or the Participants shall clearly indicate 
whether such fees are related to Post-Amendment Expenses incurred 
during Period 1, Period 2, Period 3, or Period 4.
* * * * *

    By the Commission.

    Dated: May 15, 2020.
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2020-10963 Filed 5-21-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P