Better Markets Urges SEC to Preserve CAT, Citing $47 Million Fraud Case
Updated
Updated · Better Markets · Jun 22
Better Markets Urges SEC to Preserve CAT, Citing $47 Million Fraud Case
1 articles · Updated · Better Markets · Jun 22
Summary
Better Markets filed a comment letter urging the SEC to stop actions that could weaken or eliminate the Consolidated Audit Trail, calling the agency’s comprehensive review a pretext to diminish the system.
The group said CAT is the SEC’s key real-time market surveillance tool, warning that curtailing it would make it easier for firms to break the law and leave regulators effectively blind.
Its letter pointed to enforcement results CAT helped uncover, including a front-running scheme with at least $47 million in illegal profits, a spoofing case worth more than $380,000, and a $2 million insider-trading scheme.
Better Markets rejected the SEC’s cost rationale, arguing CAT expenses are small relative to the size of U.S. securities markets and the investor losses caused by fraud.