The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an exemptive order removing the requirement to report certain personally identifiable information (PII), specifically names, addresses, and years of birth, to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) for natural persons. The change is intended to reduce security risks associated with potential data breaches and the use of these data elements to impersonate customers or broker-dealers. The exempted data fields were originally required to help generate unique anonymized customer IDs and assist regulators in identifying the person or persons responsible for a trade. The SEC noted that it previously exempted reporting of some of the most sensitive PII in 2020, including Social Security numbers, and that the CAT should still be able to generate reliable and consistent anonymized customer IDs without the newly exempted PII.
U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission 2025-02-10
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission exempts reporting of names, addresses and years of birth to the Consolidated Audit Trail
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an exemptive order removing the requirement to report certain personally identifiable information, such as names, addresses, and years of birth, to the Consolidated Audit Trail for natural persons. This measure aims to mitigate security risks from potential data breaches and misuse for impersonation. The SEC asserts that the CAT can still generate reliable anonymized customer IDs without this information.