The Investors Exchange LLC (IEX) has amended its Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) compliance rule to reflect a five-year extension granted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to timestamp granularity requirements.
The rule change, filed with the SEC on June 17, updates IEX Rule 11.660 to align with the SEC’s May 2 decision extending exemptive relief through April 8, 2030.
IEX is a U.S. stock exchange founded in 2012 and officially launched as a national securities exchange in 2016.
It is known for its focus on transparency, fairness, and reducing the advantages held by high-frequency trading (HFT) firms.
Under the revised rule, Industry Members that capture timestamps more precise than nanoseconds must continue truncating those timestamps at the nanosecond level when submitting data to the CAT system.
The SEC first granted this exemption in 2020, citing the complexity and inconsistency introduced by timestamp rounding across market participants.
The exemption was originally scheduled to expire in April 2025 but has now been extended for another five years as part of what is formally referred to as the “2025 Timestamp Granularity Exemption.”
The IEX proposal, designated as non-controversial, took immediate effect upon filing under Rule 19b-4(f)(6), following a Commission waiver of the standard 30-day waiting period.
The SEC determined the rule change did not raise new regulatory concerns and supported its rapid implementation in the interest of maintaining consistency across self-regulatory organizations (SROs).
The CAT initiative is a cornerstone of the SEC’s efforts to enhance market oversight by requiring exchanges and broker-dealers to report comprehensive order and execution data.
By aligning timestamp granularity reporting practices, the SEC aims to ensure data integrity and comparability across firms.
IEX’s amended rule mirrors similar changes expected from other exchanges and FINRA, ensuring that all Industry Members remain subject to the same compliance timeline.
Public comments on the filing, SR-IEX-2025-12, are now being accepted by the SEC.