WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment, released the following statement on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT):

“The 2010 flash crash wiped out a trillion dollars in equity in a matter of seconds, yet it took the SEC and CFTC months to figure out what went wrong and close to six years to move forward with a substantial policy proposal. The flash crash exposed fundamental weaknesses in our current regulatory system and raised serious questions about the stability of our markets, so today’s news that the SEC is finally moving forward with a plan to implement the Consolidated Audit Trail is extremely welcome and a very, very overdue development.”

Senator Warner has been one of Capitol Hill’s strongest advocates for the creation of the CAT to provide regulators insight into how markets, products and participants are interacting and operating, dating back to the day of the 2010 market meltdown that sent the Dow plummeting nearly 1,000 points. Last Wednesday, Sen. Warner sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) pressing the Chairman on its progress in working with the SEC to implement the CAT.