March 8, 2024 - In a letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today, the FIA Principal Traders Group (FIA PTG) urged the SEC to disapprove the self-regulatory organizations’ (“SRO”) proposed rule changes to Establish Fees for Industry Members Related to Certain Historical Costs of the National Market System Plan Governing the Consolidated Audit Trail (the “CAT Fee Filings”) incurred by the SROs prior to January 1, 2022.
FIA PTG said that the CAT Fee Filings are unreasonable and violate both the Exchange Act and the CAT NMS Plan which require that any fees imposed on Industry Members be reasonable. FIA PTG said the CAT Fee Filings seek to impose several unreasonable and inappropriate costs on Industry Members including various vendor, legal and public relations costs. FIA PTG provided examples which they said are indicative of a broader failure throughout the filings to provide basic information regarding the source and driver of costs, as well as information necessary for the SEC to determine that the costs are reasonable.
FIA PTG also said that while the CAT Fee Filings are limited to Historical Recovery Period I – costs incurred prior to January 1, 2022, clearly there will be additional recovery periods established to cover time periods after January 1, 2022, and there is nothing to preclude the SROs from assessing the fees in connection with these recovery periods simultaneously. FIA PTG urged the SEC to constrain collection to one Historical Period at a time.
