The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:18:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Effective Consolidated Audit Trail: Keeping the Door Open – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Effective Consolidated Audit Trail: Keeping the Door Open https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/07/27/effective-consolidated-audit-trail-keeping-the-door-open/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=effective-consolidated-audit-trail-keeping-the-door-open https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2012/07/27/effective-consolidated-audit-trail-keeping-the-door-open/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:16:47 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=31063?d=20120727091647EDT Editor’s Note: Luis A. Aguilar is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Commissioner Walter’s statement at a recent open meeting of the SEC, which is available here. The views expressed in the post are those of Commissioner Aguilar and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the other Commissioners, or the Staff. This post relates to the adoption of an SEC rule on consolidated audit trail; the final rule is available here.

In my remarks at the Commission’s May 26, 2010 meeting considering the CAT proposal, I quoted from a 1980 Commission report that spoke about the need for a comprehensive market oversight surveillance system. [1] Flash forward over three decades from that report, and not much has changed. We have seen enormous growth in the capital markets, and the SEC still does not have access to comprehensive market data. As a result, I have been a consistent and vocal supporter of a consolidated audit trail. [2]

It has taken over 30 years for the Commission to be poised to act on this issue. Accordingly, it is important that the Commission get it right. If the first steps in establishing this national market oversight framework are flawed, the system will not be comprehensive, and it will not serve the needs of the American public.

Unfortunately, as currently structured, today’s rule falls short of establishing the process that investors deserve. It is with great disappointment that I am not able to support today’s rule. I am concerned that the proposal fails to set appropriately specific requirements to ensure the creation of a comprehensive market surveillance system, one that will capture the whole of the capital markets – including both regulated and currently unregulated markets. Moreover, I am concerned that the rule as currently drafted will limit innovation, and will fail to achieve cost savings.

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