SEC to Reduce Audit Trail Funding Costs After Citadel Court Win

The US Securities and Exchange Commission moved to reduce the operating costs of the agency’s controversial market-tracking database, after Citadel Securities and a financial-industry trade group won a suit challenging its funding amid a long-standing fight over the tool.

The so-called Consolidated Audit Trail “must be more efficient and cost-effective, especially after the recent decision,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said Tuesday in a statement.

A federal court in July invalidated the funding plan for the CAT but placed that decision on hold to give the SEC time to conduct an economic analysis. The database, which gives the SEC a ...