When the US equities and options markets begin their report-submissions testing for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 613 Consolidated Audit Trail on December 16, the sell-side firms are much more prepared than their European counterparts were in meeting their MiFID deadline, according to industry observers.

“The difference is that MiFID touched every piece of the workflow and multiple European exchanges were going in different directions,” Linda Middleditch, executive vice president, head of product strategy at Itiviti, told Markets Media. “They were not unified in their implementations and were often late in announcing how they were going to implement it. You were dealing with quite a moving target.”

A significant difference between the run-up to the two regulatory deadlines is that firms are not poaching staff as the next CAT deadline approaches as they did as MiFID’s initial deadlines approached.

“If you look at MiFID, I think some of the firms were bringing in people who knew their own platforms,” said Middleditch. “Hiring people that they hired before. There was an underestimation for equities, and there was a lack of clarity in the requirements until quite late in the day.”

However, the subsequent April 2020 deadline, when large broker-dealers are to start submitting reports, likely will be more interesting, she added.

In preparation for the opening of the reporting test environment, Itiviti has partnered with industry consultancy and platform provider Capital Markets Solutions to provide CAT-reporting services via its Regulatory Surveillance & Monitoring System.

Although Itiviti provides reporting for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s legacy Order Audit Trail System, it selected a different strategy for CAT reporting.

“Instead of handling the CAT data end-to-end, we are handing it off to CMS, which does the reporting as well as offering optional value-added services,” said Middleditch.

Itiviti transfers the necessary CAT data via a pre-integrated plug-in for its UL Bridge order-routing platform.

“Providing a one-stop-shop for all regulatory and compliance-related inquiries becomes an increasingly attractive proposition as firms are facing a growing regulatory burden,” said Satish Mujumdar, a partner at CMS, in a prepared statement. “Together with Itiviti, we will deliver on this vision while adding real value to our mutual customers.”