SEC responses to questions (Sources Sought 50310226Q0222).pdf

Sources Sought Notice: 50310226Q0222

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SEC responses to questions

1. Are alternative commercial data sources acceptable when they provide functionally equivalent capabilities to the named products?

SEC Response: The SEC will review and give consideration to alternative commercial data sources that fully meets the requirements of the SEC.

2. Does the SEC anticipate selecting a single provider for all requirements, or would the agency consider multiple awards where vendors demonstrate strength in specific data categories?

SEC Response: Preference for single provider capable of delivering interoperable datasets.

3. If this is true for some but not all of the datasets identified. Of the datasets identified in the draft requirements, which are considered mission-critical versus desirable or supplemental?

SEC Response: All datasets are deemed mission critical.

4. Can the SEC provide insight into which datasets are most heavily utilized by analysts, economists, enforcement staff, examiners, or researchers today?

a. What are the primary use cases driving this requirement (e.g., market surveillance, enforcement investigations, economic research, issuer analysis, ownership investigations, municipal finance analysis, etc.)?

SEC Response: Specific use case data is considered sensitive/non-public. In general, primary use cases will support market supervision/surveillance, economic analysis, rulemaking support, risk based examination planning, enforcement, and investigation activities.

5. Are there specific analytical workflows or research activities that the SEC believes must remain unchanged from its current environment?

SEC Response: Yes. Workflows requiring integrated, complete, analytically linked datasets must remain intact.

6. How important are global private company financials, corporate ownership structures, beneficial ownership identification, and corporate linkage analysis within the overall requirement?

SEC Response: These datasets support enforcement, economic research, ownership tracing, and corporate transaction analysis and are thus important within the overall requirement.

7. How important are M&A transaction intelligence, deal-level analytics, and corporate event monitoring compared with the market-data-focused requirements?

SEC Response: Both are important; multiple organizational user bases with varying needs.

8. Are there specific geographic coverage requirements for private companies, ownership data, or corporate hierarchies that are considered mandatory?

SEC Response: Broad coverage is preferred to avoid gaps during investigations or research workflows.

9. Would the SEC consider consolidated platforms that provide access to multiple datasets through a common interface, or is maintaining separate legacy datasets a priority?

SEC Response: Yes. The SEC will give consideration to consolidated platforms with unified interfaces and integrated datasets.

10. Is the SEC seeking primarily to replicate its current capabilities, or is it also interested in identifying newer data sources and technologies that may enhance investigative, analytical, and research workflows?

a. Would enhancements such as entity resolution, ownership transparency, relationship mapping, workflow automation, or integrated analytics be viewed favorably as part of a proposed solution?

SEC Response: Yes, the SEC seeks to maintain/replicate core capabilities (analyst reports, transcripts, real-time market data, RIC mappings). Consideration will also be given to enhancements that align with the SEC requirements.