Effective october 1, 2012, the securities and exchange commission ("SEC") adopted rule 613 under the securities exchange ACT of 1934 ("rule 613") to create a consolidated audit trail (the "CAT system") that would allow regulators to efficiently and accurately track ALL activity throughout the u.s. Markets in national market system ("NMS") securities. Among other things, the rule required the national securities exchanges and the financial industry regulatory authority ("finra"), collectively the self-regulatory organizations, ("SROS or "members") to jointly submit a plan, called an NMS plan, to create, implement and maintain a consolidated audit trail of the NMS activity. Rule 613 specifies the type of data to be collected and when the data is to be reported to a central repository. The organization's principal purpose is to create, implement and maintain a consolidated audit trail pursuant to rule 613.