The SEC released a plan for a proposed national market system that would create a single database, the Consolidated Audit Trail, to track all US activity in the equity and options markets. The establishment of the CAT will allow regulators to be better positioned to identify and investigate market misconduct, and will increase the effectiveness of market research and monitoring. The CAT would be conducted through a Delaware limited liability company that the self-regulatory organizations would own jointly, and participating self-regulatory organizations and the SEC would have access to the data in the CAT for regulatory and oversight purposes. The plan sets out the record keeping and reporting information that SROs and broker-dealers would be required to submit at various stages in the lifecycle of an order or transaction. Public comments on the plan are due within 60 days of the plan’s publication in the Federal Register.