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WASHINGTON, DC – The American Securities Association (ASA) today sent a letter to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler demanding the Commission to heed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray’s warning about Chinese Communist Party cyber-threats to American infrastructure and remove American retail investors’ personal and financial information (PII) from the Consolidated Audit Trail Database (CAT).
“The CAT is critical infrastructure. This SEC must not ignore FBI Director Wray’s warning about CCP-backed hackers poised to ‘wreak havoc’ on our critical infrastructure and the risk this poses to every American investor,” said ASA President & CEO Chris Iacovella. “The SEC recently admitted there is no ‘express authorization for CAT by Congress’. Thus, the SEC- and its leaders- are knowingly and intentionally subjecting investors to the CCPs cyber threat. When a breach does happen, investors will demand that the Agency, and those responsible for implementing the CAT policy, be held accountable and personally liable for their harm. The SEC can either act now to remove American retail investor PII from the CAT database or take its chances after a breach occurs defending an unlawful policy that also violates the privacy rights and personal liberty granted to every American under our Constitution in court.”
Read the American Securities Association’s letter here.
In November 2020, the ASA outlined several constitutional, privacy, and data security concerns to the SEC associated with the Consolidated Audit Trail’s collection of every American investor’s personal and financial information.
In October 2023, ASA and Citadel Securities jointly petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to review the SEC’s implementation of the Consolidated Audit Trail, in response to widespread investor concerns about transparency, governance, costs, and data privacy.
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About the American Securities Association
American Securities Association, based in Washington, DC, represents the retail and institutional capital markets interests of regional financial services firms who provide Main Street businesses with access to capital and advise hardworking Americans how to create and preserve wealth. ASA’s mission is to promote trust and confidence among investors, facilitate capital formation, and support efficient and competitively balanced capital markets. This mission advances financial independence, stimulates job creation, and increases prosperity. The ASA has a geographically diverse membership of almost one hundred members that spans the Heartland, Southwest, Southeast, Atlantic, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States.
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