Today, key members of the House Financial Services Committee expressed their approval following an announcement by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Acting Director Mark Uyeda. The SEC will now exempt individuals from the requirement to report Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT).
Chairman French Hill stated, “With over 60% of Americans' private information already public, there was no reason for the SEC to require individuals to report additional PII to the CAT. I applaud Acting SEC Director Uyeda for taking steps to protect the financial privacy of American investors and Americans’ personal data. The House Financial Services Committee will build upon the work of Rep. Barry Loudermilk in the last Congress to provide statutory certainty to ensure no PII will be released from CAT.”
Subcommittee Chair Ann Wagner also commented on the decision, saying, “The SEC should never have been so recklessly storing the personal information of Americans. Today’s decision is a victory for all of our Constitutional rights. Main Street investors deserve to be able to invest without the SEC unnecessarily storing their sensitive data in a single repository at great risk of a data breach. I will continue to work with Chairman Hill and my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee to make this permanent and protect Americans’ privacy and the security of our financial system.”
Representative Barry Loudermilk highlighted his ongoing efforts against what he views as unconstitutional practices by the SEC: “For years, I have been fighting to end the SEC’s unconstitutional collecting of personal financial information through the Consolidated Audit Trail, which has been tracking every individual investor’s transactions through an unaccountable centralized database. Not only is collecting all of this information unconstitutional and unnecessary, it is also a huge cybersecurity target for foreign adversaries and criminal hackers. Today’s exemptive order from the SEC is a huge victory for personal financial privacy, and it shows the Trump Administration is serious about curtailing government overreach and protecting our personal privacy.”