Compliance teams today are feeling the squeeze. Regulatory scrutiny has intensified, and FINRA CAT reporting sits right at the center of that pressure. We hear the same challenges from firms every day, manual reviews that drain hours, systems that don’t integrate well, and growing audit expectations that never seem to slow down.
It’s no surprise that Comparative Review often feels like a scramble: matching source data across OMS, EMS, and proprietary systems with CAT outcomes while the clock ticks and accuracy demands rise.
At Capital Market Solutions, we’ve added a Comparative Review feature in RSMS to change that experience. Our mission is simple — to bring clarity, consistency, and confidence to your FINRA CAT compliance workflows. Let’s explore how RSMS redefines Comparative Review by unifying data, strengthening controls, and giving compliance teams the visibility they’ve been asking for.
Understanding Bottlenecks in Traditional Comparative Reviews
Traditionally, Comparative Review spans multiple disconnected systems: an OMS for order origination, an EMS for execution details, and various algo or routing platforms in between. Each holds a part of the trade lifecycle, but none tell the full story. To validate CAT events, compliance analysts often stitch together trade records using spreadsheets, screenshots, and email threads. It’s time-consuming, repetitive, and highly prone to human error.
Small discrepancies in field formats, timestamps, or lifecycle statuses quickly balloon into days of back-and-forth. This fragmentation not only slows down teams but also increases the risk of missed exceptions, incomplete reporting, and inconsistent governance.
Picture a typical afternoon: an analyst toggling across six windows, exporting CSVs, filtering data, highlighting mismatches, and manually rebuilding the narrative for an auditor. It works, until it doesn’t. There’s a better way. Imagine a Comparative Review experience that’s unified, traceable, and designed for control from the start.
Moving Beyond Manual Hassle With RSMS
Comparative Reviews feature in our RSMS tool is purpose-built to simplify the oversight required for FINRA CAT compliance. It brings together a unified dashboard, transparent data mapping, and timely checks to give teams an end-to-end view of what’s happening and why. From data ingestion to exception handling to audit evidence, everything lives in one place.
With RSMS, we’ve eliminated the “swivel chair” workflow. Data from OMS, EMS, algorithmic, and routing systems is placed into a single, consistent model. Every field is traceable from source to CAT submission. Compliance teams can understand exceptions at a glance and resolve them with full context.
We designed RSMS to harmonize Comparative Review across business lines, helping firms stay on top of CAIS identities, CAT event lifecycles, and the controls that tie them together. Our goal is simple: make the process smarter, faster, and more dependable. RSMS replaces complexity with clarity, so compliance teams can focus on analysis, not chaos management.
Key Features that Redefine Comparative Review
1. Unified Review Dashboard
All workflows, all in one place. The RSMS dashboard consolidates Comparative Review activities into a single, intuitive interface—source feeds, CAT results, exceptions, and remediation steps. You cut down on toggling between systems, make faster decisions, and reduce the risk of missing critical details. The entire lifecycle is visible at a glance.
2. Transparent Data Mapping
Every field is traceable from source to submission. RSMS provides clear data lineage, showing how a field was transformed, validated, and reported to CAT. During audits, transparency is everything. Traceability shortens evidence-gathering time, strengthens controls, and builds confidence with stakeholders.
3. Flexible Execution
Run Comparative Reviews your way—on a schedule or on-demand. RSMS adapts to daily cycles, monthly reconciliations, ad-hoc checks, and special investigations. Flexibility ensures your review cadence aligns with business needs and regulatory timelines without disrupting operations.
4. Collaboration & Audit-Ready Trails
Compliance, technology, and operations can collaborate seamlessly—right where the data lives. Capture notes, attach evidence, and maintain an immutable audit trail. Collaboration speeds up outcomes, while audit-ready documentation preserves institutional knowledge. You don’t just fix issues—you prove accountability.
The Measurable Impact
Firms adopting RSMS see the difference immediately. Manual effort drops, turnaround time improves, and compliance teams can dedicate more time to analysis and strategy. Fewer reporting errors and stronger data integrity mean fewer time spent reconciling discrepancies before audits.
Transparent data mapping and consistent audit trails make audit readiness a steady state—not a scramble. Most importantly, teams regain confidence. Instead of chasing data inconsistencies across systems, they focus on meaningful insights and informed decisions. Comparative Review transforms from a patchwork of tasks into a cohesive, governed process.
The result? A lower total cost of compliance, fewer internal cycles, reduced operational risk, and better collaboration across compliance, operations, and tech teams.
Ready to Elevate Comparative Review?
The era of fragmented, manual reviews is ending. FINRA CAT Comparative Review demands visibility, consistency, and control—and RSMS delivers all three. With its unified dashboard, transparent data mapping, flexible execution, and collaborative audit trails, RSMS empowers compliance teams to work smarter, stay audit-ready, and operate with confidence.
As compliance expectations evolve, staying ahead means embracing smarter, data-driven oversight. RSMS isn’t just a tool; it’s a partner in building long-term compliance resilience.
If you’re ready to elevate your Comparative Review process and strengthen oversight, we’re here to help. Let’s redefine compliance workflows, together. Connect with us to explore RSMS in action.