Regulatory Initiatives

What IBKR Clients Need to Know

An IBKR client falls under the rule and is obligated to report to CAT if they are a member of a U.S. national securities exchange or a U.S. national securities association that handles orders or quotes in NMS equity securities, OTC equity securities or listed options. Unlike the current OATS reporting obligation, the CAT reporting obligations extend the scope of covered instruments to options too.

We recommend that such clients become familiar with the rules that are available on the regulator’s website: https://catnmsplan.com/index.html.

Please note that the CAT Rules do not provide for any firms to be excluded or exempted from the CAT reporting obligation.

IBKR will offer CAT reporting services for its clients that are obligated to CAT report.

• If your firm would like to contract with IBKR to handle CAT reporting, please complete the CAT Declaration page that is available on the website at:
  https://www.catnmsplan.com/registration/.
  
  
• If you elect to have IBKR handle CAT reporting for you, IBKR will provide you with a CAT Reporting Agreement for signature. We expect to provide these soon, after FINRA publishes its best practices for these agreements. Your firm will also need to update its own policies and procedures in accordance with the CAT Rules.

Although the CAT Industry Member Technical Specifications continue to be amended and revised, IBKR is working to comply with the requirements outlined so far.

We will provide additional information about testing and CAT reporting efforts as it becomes available.

Additional Resources

• Clock Synchronization Attestation
• IBCO Supplemental Clock Synchronization Attestation 2023
• IBLLC Supplemental Clock Synchronization Attestation 2023
• Signed IBCO and CAT Clock Sync Certifications 2023
• Signed IBLLC and CAT Clock Sync Certifications 2023
• IBCO Supplemental Clock Synchronization Attestation 2022
• IBLLC Supplemental Clock Synchronization Attestation 2022
• Signed IBCO and CAT Clock Sync Certifications 2022
• Signed IBLLC and CAT Clock Sync Certifications 2022
• Supplemental Clock Synchronization Attestation 2021
• Signed IBLLC and IBCO CAT Clock Sync certifications 2021
• Signed IBLLC and IBCO CAT Clock Sync certifications 2020
• Signed IBLLC and IBCO CAT Clock Sync certifications 2019