CAT CONSULTING SERVICES

Implementing and verifying CAT compliance. 

Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) 

CAT’s goal of improving trading surveillance has introduced significant reporting complexity to securities brokers. CAT has extended previous regulatory requirements by including new events and business activities, widening product scope, and implementing a strict error-correction cycle. Most critically, its broad surveillance capabilities include using personally identifiable information (PII) for each transaction, trying together the “what” with the “who” for the first time in reporting history.  

The complexity of CAT requires a necessary combination of regulatory, institutional, security, and data-strategy expertise. With our deep business domain knowledge and technical skill, we prepare firms for CAT compliance while ensuring the most secure and efficient life cycle for their data.

Our services include Regulatory Health Checks that can assess your current state of compliance as well as a range of targeted services for each stage of CAT compliance.

Regulatory Health Checks 

Our comprehensive reviews of your applications, infrastructure, and business processes can provide your firm with a roadmap to CAT compliance. These Regulatory Health Checks focus on data quality, completeness, and accuracy, providing: 

Recommendations for reconciling gaps between CAT and the order audit trail system (OATS) it supersedes 

Advice on avoiding re-occurrences of reporting breaks 

Remediation plans for incomplete, erroneous, and inaccurate data 

We offer our Regulatory Health Checks in three standard tiers, with an option to tailor a custom Health Check upon request. 

Silver

  • Rule Interpretation 
  • In-House Business Requirements 
  • Completeness

Gold

  • Rule Interpretation 
  • In-House Business Requirements 
  • Completeness

All of the above, plus:

  • Testing
  • Data Quality
  • Data Source
  • Event Eligibility

Platinum

  • Rule Interpretation 
  • In-House Business Requirements 
  • Completeness
  • Testing
  • Data Quality
  • Data Source
  • Event Eligibility

All of the above, plus:

  • Product Eligibility
  • Report Generation
  • Customer Reference Data
  • Error Correction
  • Surveillance

Targeted CAT Offerings 

Gap Analysis 

  • OATS-to-CAT comparison to identify gaps, maximize efficiencies, and get ahead of potential challenging uplifts

Health Check and Rule Interpretation 

  • Detailed analysis of your firm’s path to compliance, with interpretation of CAT rules uniquely addressed to your needs 

Front-to-Back Analysis 

  • Full assessment of the applications, infrastructure, and processes that make up your business value chain

Eligibility 

  • Defined scope for relevant products, including product eligibility (e.g. cash equity/options), event eligibility (e.g. new order vs. order accept), and electronic/manual, to ensure accurate reporting

End-to-End Implementations 

  • Full suite of services to achieve successful implementation and ongoing support: establishing workstreams, documenting business and technical requirements, developing to meet specs, testing, and launching with appropriate controls 

Testing

  • Comprehensive testing of in-house implementation, including development of applicable use cases to ensure completeness and accuracy 

Technical Requirements 

  • Review and articulation of business requirements, data sourcing, business decision models, business process maps, user stories, and acceptance criteria to ensure changes are both manageable and auditable 

Enhanced Surveillance 

  • Design surveillance capabilities given new broader data points and adherence 

Data Strategy and Storage 

  • Guidance on overall data strategy, retention, and sustained usability, including appropriate data masking technology to protect client’s Pll  

Data Mapping 

  • Data-lake contact, data sourcing, and transparency between OMS and CAT reporting 

Controls

  • Scope of controls impacting accuracy, timeliness, and runtime controls 

Client Reference Data 

  • Solutions for Firm Designated ID (FDID) and for protecting other client Pll

Report Generation 

  • Report delivery per product/event and data transformation to CAT-native format Dashboard and Data Visualization

Dashboard and Data Visualization 

  • Practical, user-friendly interfaces to optimize on throughput and highlight pain points

Error Corrections 

  • Requirements and processes to meet compliance for error-correction cycle, which must be submitted within 1.5 days

BAU Transition 

  • Procedures, escalation process, training materials, etc. to allow your firm to seamlessly incorporate new CAT solutions into existing established business operations

Our CATalytics solution provides free, customizable analytics to CAT Operations teams

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