The Consolidate Tape Plan – or CT Plan – is the new national market system (“NMS”) Plan to govern the public dissemination of real-time consolidated equity market data for NMS stocks. The CT Plan will be the unified successor to the existing three market data equity plans – the CTA Plan/CQ Plan and the UTP Plan.
The CT Plan, which will streamline the administrative functions and deliver greater efficiency to the industry, is expected to go live in early 2027.
The CT Plan was established pursuant to a 2023 order by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that directed the U.S. equities exchanges and FINRA to act jointly in developing a new single national market system Plan to govern the public dissemination of real-time consolidated equity market data.
Similar to the three Plans it will eventually replace, the CT Plan will be run by an Operating Committee that consists of all the U.S. equity exchanges and FINRA. The Operating Committee has an Advisory Committee comprised of professionals from a cross-section of the financial industry.