Securities regulators have decided to abandon the electronic audit trail project known as TREATS.

In a notice published Friday, the Canadian Securities Administrators announced that they have decided not to proceed with the Transaction Reporting and Electronic Audit Trail System (TREATS). The project, which was initiated by the CSA, along with the Bourse de Montréal Inc and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, was to “investigate, design and implement a solution to facilitate compliance with Canadian securities electronic audit trail requirements” that were introduced in the trading rules.

The CSA said that as a result of the work done over the past couple of years (examining models used in other jurisdictions, and analyzing the possible benefits of such a project), regulators have decided not to go ahead. “This decision was made after considering the size and complexity of the undertaking in relation to the relative uncertainty as to whether the initiative’s overall policy objective of enhanced market integrity would be achieved,” the CSA said.

“Other work focusing on enhancing the electronic audit trail information, in a more simplified manner, may be pursued in the future as a new initiative,” it added.

IE