07 December, 2020
Working Group Update 12/7/2020
07 December, 2020
- FIF CAT Tech Specs Working Group. The CAT Tech Specs Working Group reviewed the recently-received responses from FINRA CAT to questions and comments previously submitted by FIF. The Working Group reviewed various issues raised by FIF members, including internal routing scenarios, reporting for foreign securities, and reporting of the symbol for orders received after the close of trading on the evening prior to a symbol change. The Working Group reviewed the new and updated FIX Extension Packs for CAT. The Working Group reviewed the SEC approval of the FINRA rule proposal relating to the termination of OATS. The Working Group reviewed and discussed the recent TRF amendments relating to timestamp granularity to conform to CAT. The Working Group discussed the recent FINRA CAT Weekly Industry Testing Checkpoint call.
- FIF CAT CAIS Working Group. FIF members reviewed and finalized a comment letter on the SEC’s “Proposed Amendments to the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail to Enhance Data Security”. The comment letter focused on the currently proposed CAT CAIS (Customer Account and Information System) reporting requirements, including: reporting requirements for authorized traders; reporting sub roles; reporting name and address details; reporting of account transfers; and the proposed inconsistency management process. The Working Group continued its discussion of the required formatting changes for reporting ULTIDs. The Working Group also reviewed recent updates to the FINRA CAT CAIS Technical Specifications document.
- FIF Front Office Committee. Chris Bok of OTC Markets discussed FINRA’s proposal to retire the OTCBB and enhance oversight of OTC equity markets. Please find the rest of the regulatory notices discussed on the agenda here.
- FIF Spotlight on FPL Programs. FIF conducted a call for the Back Office Committee that focused on the recent SEC no-action letter relating to fully paid lending (FPL) programs (programs in which broker-dealers borrow fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers). Nihal Patel from the Cadwalader law firm provided background on the rule proposal.
Eduard Kotlyar