The American Securities Association (ASA) recently forwarded correspondence to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging action to prevent identity theft.
The ASA is seeking the removal of the collection of retail investor personally identifiable information (PII) from the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database to protect Americans from identity theft, hacking, and data manipulation.
“Chairman Clayton has been a champion for Main Street investors throughout his tenure, and he has an opportunity to further cement his investor-first legacy by leading the SEC to remove the collection of retail investor PII from the CAT database,” ASA CEO Chris Iacovella said. “While the current Commission inherited the CAT and its many challenges, they can be the ones to get it up and running and better protect investors without sacrificing the identity and data privacy of the American people.”
New ASA polling data from Morning Consult released via the letter showed 72 percent of investors are not willing to put their personal information at risk to facilitate more insider trading cases while 76 percent favor being allowed to opt-out of having their PII collected under a system such as the CAT.
The ASA maintains the collection of retail investor PII does not bolster the SEC’s ability to oversee equity markets more effectively, adding as the Commission has had no issue generating 386 trading cases since FY2011.