SEC Looks to Reform Trading Database Loathed by Wall Street

The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked for public input on how to trim down the cost and scope of trading data that exchanges and brokers report to a controversial market-tracking system.

The so-called Consolidated Audit Trail, or the CAT, was created in the wake of the 2010 “flash crash” that briefly wiped almost $1 trillion off US stocks. The database aides the SEC in real-time market monitoring but the industry has complained for years about the CAT’s cost and the scope of data being collected.