Exemptive Request Letters

On May 20, 2024, the SEC issued an order granting exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan relating to responses to requests for quotes (RFQs) provided in standard electronic format (e.g., FIX) that are not “immediately actionable” (i.e., further action is required by the responder providing the quote in order to execute or cause a trade to be executed), to the extent such responses are considered “orders” reportable pursuant to Rule 613(j)(8).  The relief expires on July 31, 2026.

On February 13, 2024, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan relating to responses to requests for quotes (RFQs) provided in standard electronic format (e.g., FIX) that are not “immediately actionable” (i.e., further action is required by the responder providing the quote in order to execute or cause a trade to be executed), to the extent such responses are considered “orders” reportable pursuant to Rule 613(j)(8). This request amended and replaced the request previously submitted to the SEC on May 23, 2023.

On November 27, 2023, the SEC issued an order granting exemptive relief from Rule 17a-1 under the Exchange Act and certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan relating to the retention of Industry Test Data.

On November 2, 2023, the SEC issued an order granting exemptive relief from certain requirements of the CAT NMS Plan related to: (1) online targeted query tool performance requirements; (2) requirements for lifecycle linkages timeframes; (3) requirements for re-processing of corrected data received after T+5; (4) requirements for SIP data linkage; (5) reporting requirements for port-level settings; (6) requirements for lifecycle linkages between customer orders and “representative” orders; and (7) requirements for Participant reporting of rejected orders.  The effective date of the order is November 20, 2023.

On October 20, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for no-action relief related to 2X load testing for the CAT System.

On July 28, 2023, the SEC issued an order granting temporary exemptive relief from certain requirements in Section 6.4(d) of the CAT NMS Plan relating to the reporting of certain verbal floor activity and unstructured verbal and electronic upstairs activity. The relief expires on July 31, 2026.

On June 6, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for no-action relief related to 2X load testing for the CAT System.   

On June 2, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from Rule 17a-1 under the Exchange Act and certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan relating to the retention of Industry Test Data. 

On May 23, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan relating to responses to requests for quotes (RFQs) provided in standard electronic format (e.g., FIX) that are not “immediately actionable” (i.e., further action is required by the responder providing the quote in order to execute or cause a trade to be executed), to the extent such responses are considered “orders” reportable pursuant to Rule 613(j)(8).

On May 22, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for temporary exemptive relief to extend the fourth and final Financial Accountability Milestone date of December 30, 2022, and to extend the deadline for Industry Member Phase 2e full reporting to the Central Repository.  This request amended and replaced the requests previously submitted to the SEC on November 22, 2022 and June 30, 2022.

SEC Approval Order of Exemptive Request Letter related to the July 8 Order

On May 19, 2023 the SEC issued an order extending until January 31, 2025 temporary conditional exemptive relief from certain requirements of the CAT NMS Plan as previously set forth in its July 8, 2022 order. The July 8, 2022 order granted temporary conditional exemptive relief from certain requirements in the CAT NMS Plan related to  (1) online targeted query tool performance requirements; (2) requirements for lifecycle linkages timeframes; (3) requirements for re-processing of corrected data received after T+5; (4) requirements for SIP Data linkage; (5) reporting requirements for port-level settings; (6) requirements for lifecycle linkages between customer orders and “representative” orders; and (7) requirements for Participant reporting of rejected orders until July 31, 2024.

On April 12, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for the extension of the relief granted by the SEC in its July 8, 2022 exemptive order from July 31, 2024 to January 31, 2025.

On March 31, 2023, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to the reporting of certain verbal floor activity and unstructured verbal and electronic upstairs activity. 

On November 22, 2022, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for temporary exemptive relief to extend the fourth and final Financial Accountability Milestone date of December 30, 2022, and to extend the deadline for Industry Member Phase 2e full reporting to the Central Repository.

On October 27, 2022, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to creating a unique CAT Customer-ID (“CCID”) in certain limited scenarios.  This request amended and replaced in its entirety a similar request previously submitted to the SEC on November 23, 2021.
 

On August 10, 2022, the Participants submitted to the SEC a request for temporary exemptive relief from certain reporting and processing requirements in the CAT NMS Plan related to large trader identifiers (LTIDs).

On June 30, 2022, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain requirements in the CAT NMS Plan related to industry member reporting of customer and account information by July 11, 2022.  

On June 3, 2022, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to the reporting of certain verbal floor activity and unstructured verbal and electronic upstairs activity.   

On November 23, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to creating a unique CAT Customer-ID (“CCID”) in certain limited scenarios.  This request amended and replaced in its entirety a similar request previously submitted to the SEC on October 27, 2021.
 

On October 27, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to creating a unique CAT Customer-ID (“CCID”) for each foreign customer.  This request amended and replaced in its entirety a similar request previously submitted to the SEC on September 13, 2021.

On September 13, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for temporary exemptive relief from the
requirement set forth in Sections 9.1 and 9.3 of the CAT NMS Plan to create a unique  CAT Customer-ID (“CCID”) for Customers who do not have a social security number (“SSN”), individual taxpayer identification number (“ITIN”) or employer identification number (“EIN”) (collectively, “Foreign Customers”) until July 31, 2023 in order to conduct a study and implement any related technical changes to the CAT System.

On September 13, 2021,  the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from the requirement in Section 6.4(d)(ii)(C) of the Plan and the Phased Reporting Exemption for Industry Members to report Customer addresses at the Customer level to the CAT beginning in Phase 2e. As a condition to this relief, the Participants would require Industry Members to report account mailing address to the CAT and to optionally report Customer address, if it is available and different than the account mailing address.

On June 10, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for temporary exemptive relief to move certain Industry Member reporting obligations related to the reporting of unique Order IDs on internal route events from Phase 2d to August 1, 2023.

On March 17, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief to move certain Industry Member reporting obligations from Phase 2c to Phase 2d; these items include: (1) rejected external route flags related to the equity leg of a multi leg order; (2) certain OTC Equity Securities quotes; (3) certain OTC Equity Securities messages; and (4) quote identifiers.

On March 17, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from the requirement in Section 6.1 of Appendix D that CAT Reporters resubmit corrected data by T+3 at 8 am ET.  This request amended and replaced in its entirety a similar request previously submitted to the SEC on December 4, 2020.

On March 17, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from the requirement in Section 6.1 of Appendix D that the Plan Processor communicate errors to CAT Reporters by T+1 at noon ET.  This request amended and replaced in its entirety a similar request previously submitted to the SEC on December 4, 2020.

On March 17, 2021, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for targeted exemptive relief from the requirement in Section 6.1 of Appendix D that the Plan Processor communicate errors to CAT Reporters by T+1 at noon ET.  If granted, from April 26, 2021 through April 29, 2021, the Plan Processor will be able to communicate errors to CAT Reporters by T+1 at 4 pm ET to allow the Plan Processor time to convert data provided to Industry Members from the equities Phase 2a reporting format to the equities Phase 2c reporting format. 

On December 4, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to the resubmission of corrected data to the CAT by T+3 at 8 am ET.

On December 4, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to initial data validation, lifecycle linkages and communication of errors by T+1 at noon ET.

On December 1, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to the online targeted query tool.

On August 27, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to Allocations Reports.  The request amends and replaces in its entirety the exemptive request letter submitted to the SEC on April 27, 2020 regarding Allocation Reports.

On July 1, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to reporting verbal activity on and off exchange trading floors.

On June 5, 2020, the Plan Participants filed a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to data facility reporting and linkage.  The request amends and replaces in its entirety the exemptive request letter submitted to the SEC on February 12, 2020 related to data facility reporting and linkage.

On April 27, 2020, the Plan Participants submitted to the SEC a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to Allocations Reports.

On April 20, 2020, the SEC issued an exemptive order permitting introducing brokers that meet certain requirements to follow the Small Industry Member reporting timeline.

Notice of Filing of Exemptive Request Letter related to Customer and Account Information

On January 29, 2020, the Plan Participants filed a request for exemptive relief from certain provisions of the CAT NMS Plan related to the collection of social security numbers, dates of birth and account numbers.

Notice of Filing of Exemptive Request Letter related to Timeline

On November 13, 2017, the Plan Participants filed a Request for Exemptive Relief from Certain Provisions of the CAT NMS Plan. This letter requested exemptions related to the Timeline.

Approval Order of Exemptive Request Letter

On March 1, 2016, the SEC issued exemptive relief from certain provisions Rule 613 relating to: (1) the reporting of options market maker quotations; (2) the reporting and use of the Customer-ID; (3) the reporting and use of the CAT-Reporter-ID; (4) the linking of executions to specific subaccount allocations; and (5) time stamp granularity.

Supplement #2 to Exemptive Request Letter: Account Effective Date

On September 2, 2015, the SROs filed a second Supplement to the Exemptive Request Letter. This supplement clarified the use of Account Effective Date proposed under the Customer ID exemptive request.

Supplement #1 to Exemptive Request Letter: Allocation Report Examples

On April 3, 2015, the SROs filed the supplement to the Exemptive Request Letter (“Supplement”). The Supplement provides clarification related to the allocation reports proposed under the Linking Allocations to Executions exemptive request.

Notice of Filing of Exemptive Request Letter

On January 30, 2015, the SROs filed a Request for Exemptive Relief from Certain Provisions of SEC Rule 613 of Regulation NMS under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exemptive Request Letter”). This letter requested exemptions related to the following:

1. Options market maker quotes
2. Customer IDs
3. CAT Reporter IDs
4. Linking allocation to executions
5. Timestamp granularity