Notice2026-01528
Consolidated Tape Association; Notice of Filing of Fortieth Substantive Amendment to the Second Restatement of the CTA Plan and Thirty-First Substantive Amendment to the Restated CQ Plan
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 27, 2026
Issuing agencies
Securities and Exchange Commission
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 17 (Tuesday, January 27, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 17 (Tuesday, January 27, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3602-3609]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-01528]
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
[Release No. 34-104665; File No. SR-CTA/CQ-2026-01]
Consolidated Tape Association; Notice of Filing of Fortieth
Substantive Amendment to the Second Restatement of the CTA Plan and
Thirty-First Substantive Amendment to the Restated CQ Plan
January 22, 2026.
Pursuant to Section 11A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(``Act''),\1\ and Rule 608 thereunder,\2\ notice is hereby given that
on January 12, 2026, the Participants \3\ in the Second Restatement of
the Consolidated Tape Association (``CTA'') Plan and Restated
Consolidated Quotation (``CQ'') Plan (collectively ``CTA/CQ Plans'' or
``Plans'') filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
(``Commission'' or ``SEC'') a proposal to amend the Plans. These
amendments represent the Fortieth Substantive Amendment to the CTA Plan
and Thirty-First Substantive Amendment to the CQ Plan (``Amendments'').
Under the Amendments, the Participants propose to amend the Plans to
extend the Processor's hours of operations to receive and disseminate
quotation information, last sale price information, and related
information in Eligible Securities from 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time (``ET'')
Sunday to 8:00 p.m. ET Friday; provided however, that the Processor
will pause operations at 8:00p.m. ET on Monday through Thursday for an
hour to accommodate technical refreshes for the Processor,
Participants, and other market participants. Other than extending the
hours of operations, the Processor will operate as it currently
does.\4\
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\1\ 15 U.S.C. 78k-1(a)(3).
\2\ 17 CFR 242.608.
\3\ The Participants are: 24X National Exchange LLC, Cboe BYX
Exchange, Inc., Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., Cboe EDGA Exchange, Inc.,
Cboe EDGX Exchange, Inc., Cboe Exchange, Inc., Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority, Inc., Investors Exchange LLC, Long Term Stock
Exchange, Inc., MEMX LLC, MIAX PEARL, LLC, Nasdaq BX, Inc., Nasdaq
ISE, LLC, Nasdaq PHLX LLC, The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, New York
Stock Exchange LLC, NYSE American LLC, NYSE Arca, Inc., NYSE
National, Inc., and NYSE Texas, Inc.
\4\ See Letter from Jeff Kimsey, Operating Committee Chair, to
Vanessa Countryman, Secretary, Commission dated January 12, 2026.
All capitalized terms used herein have the same meaning as is given
such terms in the Plans.
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The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the
proposed Amendments from interested persons. Set forth in Sections I
and II is the statement of the purpose and
[[Page 3603]]
summary of the proposed Amendments, along with the information required
by Rules 608(a) and 601(a) under the Act, as prepared and submitted by
the Participants. Exhibits A and B set forth the text of the Amendments
marked to show the proposed changes, which were prepared and submitted
by the Participants.
I. Rule 608(a)
1. Purpose of the Amendments
The purpose of the amendments is to extend the Processor's hours of
operation to receive and disseminate quotation information, last sale
price information, and related information in Eligible Securities from
9:00 p.m. ET Sunday to 8:00 p.m. ET Friday; provided, however, that the
Processor will pause operations at 8:00 p.m. ET on Monday through
Thursday for an hour to accommodate technical refreshes for the
Processor, Participants, and other market participants. As background,
a number of Participants have recently proposed extending their hours
of operation.\5\ Those proposals provided for trading days of varying
lengths (e.g., 23 hours versus 22 hours) along with hours of operation
that did not overlap. Further, under those proposals, the extended
trading hours could not be implemented unless the Equity Data Plans \6\
(1) established a mechanism to collect, consolidate, process and
disseminate quotation and transaction information at all times during
the extended trading hours that is equivalent to the mechanism
established for Regular Trading Hours; and (2) notified the relevant
exchanges of their readiness.
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\5\ See, e.g., Securities Exchange Act Release No. 34-101777
(Nov. 27, 2024), 89 FR 97092 (Dec. 6, 2024) (File No. 10-242 (24X));
Securities Exchange Act Release No. 34-102400 (Feb. 11, 2025), 90 FR
9794 (Feb. 18, 2025) (SR-NYSEARCA-2024-89).
\6\ The ``Equity Data Plans'' are collectively the Joint Self-
Regulatory Organization Plan Governing the Collection, Consolidation
and Dissemination of Quotation and Transaction Information for
Nasdaq-Listed Securities Traded on Exchanges on an Unlisted Trading
Privileges Basis (the ``UTP Plan''), the CQ Plan, the CTA Plan, and
the CT Plan LLC.
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Following the approval of some of those individual Participant
proposals by the SEC, all the Participants have worked jointly to
outline a plan for the collection, consolidation, processing, and
dissemination of quotation and transaction information during the
extended hours proposed by the Participants. Following extensive
discussions among the Participants and the Advisory Committee of the
UTP Plan and the Plans, the Participants have developed the proposal
contained herein (``Proposal'') to implement hours of operation to be
set as close as technologically feasible to 24 hours per day, as well
as agreed to particular hours of operation.
With respect to the hours of operation, the Participants have
agreed to operate from 9:00 p.m. ET Sunday to 8:00 p.m. ET Friday;
provided, however, that the Processor would pause operations at 8:00
p.m. ET on Monday through Thursday for an hour to accommodate technical
refreshes for the Processor, Participants, and other market
participants. In the event of a holiday where U.S. markets are closed,
the Processor would not operate from 8:00 p.m. ET the day before the
holiday through 9:00 p.m. ET the day of the holiday. For example, if
the markets are closed for a holiday on a Thursday, then the Processors
would not operate from 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday to 9:00 p.m. ET on
Thursday.
With respect to the pause from 8:00 p.m. ET to 9:00 p.m. ET on
Monday through Thursday, the Processor would endeavor to reduce the
length of the pause where technically feasible. In the event the length
of the pause is reduced, the Operating Committee would amend the Plans
and notify the industry of the reduction at least 90 days prior to
implementation of a reduction. The Participants determined that having
a pause at 8:00 p.m. ET would lessen the cost, complexity, and burden
of designing a system that did not have a pause. In particular, if the
Processor did not pause at 8:00 p.m. ET, the design would have required
designing, funding, and building a duplicate system to handle a 24-hour
trading session as the Processor's systems require at least some
downtime for system refreshes. Further, the Participants understand
that other market participants would consider the proposed pause useful
to refresh their own systems prior to beginning the next day's trading
session.\7\
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\7\ Although there may be certain days where a pause will not be
required for a refresh, the Participants believe that it will reduce
confusion and complexity to have the Processor open at the same time
each trading day.
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With respect to when a trade date starts and ends, the Processor
would consider a trade date to start at 8:00 p.m. ET on the day before
Regular Trading Hours begin and end at 8:00 p.m. ET on the same day as
when Regular Trading Hours begin.\8\ In other words, Wednesday's
trading day would start at 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and end at 8:00 p.m.
ET on Wednesday. The Participants believe that having the start of a
trade date prior to the opening of markets would reduce complexity and
burden as the alternative would have required a new trading date to
start in the middle of a trading session (i.e., at midnight).
Additionally, the Participants believe that starting the trading date
at the specified time would align with current practice for venues
already trading during the proposed extended hours.
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\8\ Setting the start of the trading day in this amendment is
only applicable to the operation of the Processor. The Operating
Committee does not have the authority to set the start of the
trading day for rules and regulations that might be dependent on
when a trading day begins.
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Consistent with current practice for existing hours of operation,
the Participants have agreed to the following provisions regarding the
Processor's operation during extended trading hours:
<bullet> For transactions reported outside the hours of 9:30 a.m.
ET and 4:00 p.m. ET, such transactions will be designated as ``.T''
trades to denote their execution outside normal market hours.
<bullet> Late trades will be reported in accordance with the rules
of the Participant in whose market the transaction occurred and can be
reported at any time the Processor is able to receive last sale price
information.
<bullet> Transactions reported outside the hours of 9:30 a.m. ET
and 4:00 p.m. ET will be included in the calculation of total trade
volume for purposes of determining net distributable operating revenue,
but will not be included in the calculation of the daily high, low, or
last sale.
<bullet> Quote Credits may be earned only in connection with
quotations transmitted by a Participant to the Processor during Regular
Trading Hours.
Consistent with the current language of the Plans, the Participants
have agreed that only Participants that utilize the extended hours
described herein would be required to pay for the development and
operating costs and expenses which would not have been incurred by the
Processor had it not made the changes described herein. Further, the
Participants have agreed that to the extent any additional Participant
begins utilizing the extended hours described herein at a later time,
such additional Participant will be required to pay a proportionate
share of the aggregate development costs previously paid by other
Participants. The Participants agree that such additional Participant
will contribute to the operating costs of the extended operating hours
from the point at which it begins utilizing the extended hours, but
that previously-incurred operating costs will not be reapportioned when
a Participant begins utilizing the extended
[[Page 3604]]
hours. As part of the amendments, the Participants have proposed moving
existing language related to costs and making minor changes for
readability.\9\
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\9\ The Participants have proposed amendments to the UTP Plan to
implement the cost allocation methodology described herein. The UTP
Plan already contains provisions relating to the allocation of
development costs for technical enhancements made at the request of
a Participant and solely for its use; however, unlike the Plans, the
UTP Plan is silent on the allocation of operating costs. See UTP
Plan, Section XIII.A.; CQ Plan Section VIII.(b); CTA Plan Section
XI.(b). The amendments to the UTP Plan would eliminate the current
inconsistency between the UTP Plan and the Plans on the issue of
cost allocation for such system enhancements, enhance the
transparency of the Equity Data Plans as to how such costs will be
borne and divided, and eliminate potential conflicts in the future
among Participants about their individual financial responsibility
for the enhancements described in this Proposal. The fact that the
current Equity Data Plans will shortly be supplanted by the CT Plan
does not eliminate the need to amend the cost allocations of the
current UTP and CTA/CQ Plans as proposed here. Subject to SEC
approval and Processor readiness, and satisfaction of market
conditions to support extended hours of operation as discussed
above, the Participants are working to make extended trading hours
available in December 2026, before the CT Plan will become
operative. The Plans do not require amendments to implement the
agreed-upon cost allocation as the current language of the Plans is
consistent with this cost-allocation methodology.
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2. Governing or Constituent Documents
No changes as a result of amendments.
3. Implementation of Amendments
The All of the Participants have manifested their approval of the
proposed amendments by means of their execution of the Plans. The
Participants also solicited the Advisory Committee for its thoughts and
any comments on the amendments.
If these amendments are approved by the Commission, the amendments,
including the proposed changes to the language of the Plans, will not
become operative until the Operating Committee determines that market
conditions will support the extended hours of operation. The specific
market conditions to be considered by the Operating Committee include,
but are not limited to, the following:
<bullet> Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (``DTCC'') offers
clearing during the extended hours of operation.
<bullet> The Processor has implemented changes to symbol directory
messages as specified in a previously approved change request, which
requires the processors to disseminate specified reference information
for Eligible Securities in symbol directory messages.
<bullet> Listing markets are able to support the changes to the
symbol directory messages, including corporate actions information.
<bullet> The Processor will be able to disseminate all quotes and
trades, including off-exchange trades, during the extended trading
hours.
The Participants request the SEC determine whether dissemination of
real-time Trade Reporting Facility (``TRF'') information outside of
Regular Hours is a prerequisite for implementation.
4. Development and Implementation Phases
The Operating Committee expects that the implementation of the
amendment will occur in December 2026. Prior to the implementation, the
Processor will announce testing dates.
5. Analysis of Impact on Competition
The amendments proposed herein do not impose any burden on
competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the
purposes of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the ``Act'') because
the amendments implement the extended trading hours as approved by the
Commission as part of proposals by the Participants. Similarly, the
Participants do not believe that the proposed amendments introduce
terms that are unreasonably discriminatory for the purposes of Section
11A(c)(1)(D) of the Act because the amendments implement the extended
trading hours as approved by the Commission as part of proposals by the
Participants. Additionally, the implementation decisions were made
after extensive discussion among the Participants (including those with
pending proposals to offer extended trading hours) as well as the
Advisory Committee. The amendments were designed with a view to
maximizing industry benefit while being agnostic to current proposals
from Participants. While certain specific aspects of the amendments
differ from the proposals by the Participants, the Participants have
agreed to these changes after discussing the practicality of
implementing extended trading hours. The Participants do not believe
that the design choices discussed herein impose a burden on competition
because the Participants have developed an approach that minimizes
downtime of the system while also ensuring that the Processor, the
Participants, and other market participants have the opportunity to
refresh their systems during the pause prior to the start of a trading
day. The Participants believe that implementing the pause will minimize
the technological burden of the expanded trading hours.
6. Written Understanding or Agreements Relating to Interpretation of,
or Participation in, Plan
No changes as a result of amendments.
7. Approval by Sponsors in Accordance With Plan
Section IV.(c)(i) of the CQ Plan and Section IV.(b)(i) of the CTA
Plan require the Participants to unanimously approve the amendments
proposed herein. They have so approved it as of the date specified in
the below amendments.
8. Description of Operation of Facility Contemplated by the Proposed
Amendment
Other than extending the hours of operations, the Processor will
operate as it currently does.
9. Terms and Conditions of Access
No changes as a result of amendments.
10. Method of Determination and Imposition, and Amount of, Fees and
Charges
The Participants have proposed amendments to the UTP Plan to
implement the cost allocation methodology described above.
11. Method and Frequency of Processor Evaluation
No changes as a result of amendments.
12. Dispute Resolution
No changes as a result of amendments.
II. Rule 601(a)
1. Equity Securities and Nasdaq Securities for Which Transaction
Reports Shall Be Required by the Plan
No changes as a result of amendments.
2. Reporting Requirements
Other than extending the hours of operations, the Processor will
operate as it currently does.
3. Manner of Collecting, Processing, Sequencing, Making Available and
Disseminating Last Sale Information
Other than extending the hours of operations, the Processor will
operate as it currently does.
4. Manner of Consolidation
Other than extending the hours of operations, the Processor will
operate as it currently does.
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5. Standards and Methods Ensuring Promptness, Accuracy and Completeness
of Transaction Reports
Other than extending the hours of operations, the Processor will
operate as it currently does.
6. Rules and Procedures Addressed to Fraudulent or Manipulative
Dissemination
No changes as a result of amendments.
7. Terms of Access to Transaction Reports
No changes as a result of amendments.
8. Identification of Marketplace of Execution
No changes as a result of amendments.
III. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and
arguments concerning the foregoing, including whether the proposed
Amendments are consistent with the Act. Comments may be submitted by
any of the following methods:
Electronic Comments
<bullet> Use the Commission's internet comment form (<a href="http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>); or
<bullet> Send an email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d4a6a1b8b1f9b7bbb9b9b1baa0a794a7b1b7fab3bba2"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e391968f86ce808c8e8e868d9790a3908680cd848c95">[email protected]</span></a>. Please include
file number SR-CTA/CQ-2026-01 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
<bullet> Send paper comments in triplicate to Secretary, Securities
and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549-1090.
All submissions should refer to file number SR-CTA/CQ-2026-01. This
file number should be included on the subject line if email is used. To
help the Commission process and review your comments more efficiently,
please use only one method. The Commission will post all comments on
the Commission's internet website (<a href="http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml">http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml</a>).
Copies of the filing will be available for inspection and copying at
the principal offices of the Participants. Do not include personal
identifiable information in submissions; you should submit only
information that you wish to make available publicly. We may redact in
part or withhold entirely from publication submitted material that is
obscene or subject to copyright protection. All submissions should
refer to file number SR-CTA/CQ-2026-01 and should be submitted on or
before February 17, 2026.
For the Commission, by the Division of Trading and Markets,
pursuant to delegated authority.\10\
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\10\ 17 CFR 200.30-3(a)(85).
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Vanessa A. Countryman,
Secretary.
Exhibit A
Exhibit 1
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN27JA26.024
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Exhibit B
Exhibit 1
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN27JA26.025
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN27JA26.026
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[FR Doc. 2026-01528 Filed 1-26-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-C
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