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Features in Trade Surveillance Systems
for Compliance
Software that monitors trading activities to detect potential market abuse, insider trading, front-running, and other prohibited practices using pattern recognition and anomaly detection.
We ask vendors to mark their product against our feature list. It is not available for all products and in some cases we have derived data from publicly available sources. The list of features follows. Vendors can add a further 10 key features of their own.
Alert Management and Investigation Tools
Capabilities that aid workflow from alert creation through to final disposition.
- Alert Dashboard
- Centralized view of current and historical alerts with filtering and sorting.
- Alert Escalation
- Workflow for raising the severity or assigning cases to higher authority.
- Attachment Handling
- Upload and attach evidence or documents to cases or alerts.
- Audit Log
- Immutable record of all user and system actions related to cases.
- Bulk Alert Management
- Tools for actioning or closing batches of alerts efficiently.
- Case Re-open Functionality
- Allows re-examination of closed cases if new information arises.
- Disposition Tracking
- Track final outcomes (dismissal, SAR filing, etc.) for audit purposes.
- Integration with Email/Communication Platforms
- Send notifications, reminders, or extract communications as part of surveillance.
- Investigation Notes
- Secure and timestamped note-taking for audits and reviews.
- Workflow Automation
- Automates assignment, tracking, and management of surveillance cases.
Compliance Coverage and Regulatory Support
Ensures system is aligned with all relevant global and regional regulations, including quick adaptation to regulatory changes.
- Audit Readiness
- Built-in features to simplify preparing for and supporting regulatory audits.
- Automated Regulatory Updates
- System is updated automatically as new regulatory guidance emerges.
- Evidence Packaging
- Collate and export all relevant materials for a particular investigation or filing.
- Multi-jurisdictional Support
- Coverage for rules and requirements across different geographies.
- Regulation-specific Scenarios
- Pre-built rules and workflows for MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, MAR, FINRA, etc.
- Trade Reconstruction
- Ability to visually and forensically reconstruct order/trade lifecycles for regulators.
Configurability and Extensibility
Features that enable the system to adapt to changing business and regulatory requirements.
- Custom Dashboard Widgets
- Create or modify dashboard elements for role-specific workflows.
- Localization/Language Support
- Multi-language user interface and documentation.
- Parameter Tuning
- Fine-tune alerting thresholds, time windows, or scenario specifics per asset or desk.
- Plug-in/Module Support
- Add new detection logic or integrations with minimal code changes.
- Rule Editor/Designer
- Graphical or scripting interface for rapid rule development.
Core Surveillance Capabilities
Features that enable detection, monitoring, and investigation of suspicious trading activity in real-time or post-trade to ensure regulatory compliance.
- Alert Generation
- Automated creation of notifications for compliance team review on flagged activities.
- Alert Prioritization
- System to rank the importance and urgency of alerts based on risk.
- Anomaly Detection
- Statistical or AI-driven alerting on behaviors that deviate from historical norms.
- Audit Trail
- Comprehensive logging of user actions, rule changes, and investigations for compliance.
- Case Management
- Tools for documenting, tracking, and managing compliance investigations.
- Custom Rule Creation
- Ability for users to define, implement, and adjust surveillance rules.
- False Positive Reduction
- Mechanisms to reduce erroneous or unnecessary alerts.
- Historical Data Retention Period
- Time duration for which trade data is maintained for surveillance and investigations.
- Investigation Workflow
- Structured process for alert review, analysis, escalation, and resolution.
- Pattern Recognition
- Automated identification of market abuse patterns such as layering, spoofing, or wash trades.
- Post-trade Analysis
- Ability to conduct surveillance on completed trades for historical pattern detection.
- Real-time Data Ingest Rate
- The maximum number of trades or messages processed per second in real-time monitoring.
- Real-time Monitoring
- The system's ability to analyze and flag suspicious trades as they happen.
- Rule Library
- Pre-built rules for fast deployment and coverage of common compliance scenarios.
Data Integration and Coverage
Facility to connect, aggregate, and normalize data from multiple sources for effective surveillance.
- APIs for Data In/Out
- Public or private APIs for custom integrations to ingest/extract data.
- Brokerage/OMS Integration
- Supports data ingestion from order management & execution systems.
- Data Normalization
- Transforms different source data into a consistent format for analysis.
- Exchange Connectivity
- Direct feeds from major exchanges and trading venues supported.
- Historical Data Import
- Bulk ingestion of legacy data for backtesting and lookback reviews.
- Multi-Asset Class Support
- Support for equities, fixed income, options, futures, FX, crypto, etc.
- Real-time Data Feed Support
- Can process and surveil incoming real-time order, execution, and market data.
- Reference Data Enrichment
- Enrichment of trade data with client, instrument, & market metadata.
- Third-party Data Integration
- Ability to integrate with data from third-party vendors and regulators.
Machine Learning & Advanced Analytics
Innovative and intelligent features for improving detection & reducing false positives.
- Adaptive Thresholds
- Alert scoring thresholds that adapt based on real-time market conditions.
- Entity Profile Generation
- Autonomous generation and updating of trading entity behavioral profiles.
- Explainable AI Features
- Transparency and interpretability of automated alerting models.
- Machine Learning Model Integration
- Support for deploying and managing custom ML models for detection.
- Outlier Analysis
- Identification of uncommon or infrequent behavioral patterns.
- Self-learning Algorithms
- Ability for algorithms to improve over time using feedback from investigators.
Market Abuse Detection
Features targeted at identifying market manipulation, insider dealing, and other regulatory infractions.
- Churning Detection
- Detection of excessive trading to generate commissions or fees.
- Cross-market Manipulation Coverage
- Ability to correlate and detect abuse across multiple venues or asset classes.
- Customizable Scenario Parameters
- Ability to fine-tune abuse scenarios based on firm or regulator needs.
- Front-running Detection
- Identification of personnel trading ahead of client or firm orders.
- Insider Trading Detection
- Ability to recognize trading activity that may be based on non-public, material information.
- Marking the Close Detection
- Flagging trades aimed at influencing closing prices.
- Quote Stuffing Detection
- Identifies high volumes of order submission and cancellation to clog market data.
- Reference Price Manipulation
- Detects attempts to distort benchmarks or reference prices.
- Spoofing/Layering Detection
- Detection of placing orders with intention to cancel to manipulate market appearance.
- Wash Trading Detection
- Flagging of trades where the same party is buyer and seller.
Reporting and Analytics
Advanced features for compliance reporting, regulator filings, MI (management information), trend analysis, and dashboards.
- Custom Report Builder
- Allows users to generate custom reports using extensive data filters and pivots.
- Data Export Capability
- Export raw data or reports in CSV, Excel, PDF, or other formats.
- Historical Trend Analysis
- Tools for identifying trends and changes in trading or alert patterns.
- Interactive Dashboards
- Visualizations and key metrics about alerts, investigations, and trends.
- Management Information Reports
- KPI and MI tools for compliance and operations management.
- On-demand Report Generation Speed
- Average time required to generate a standard report on demand.
- Regulator/Exchange Communication Tools
- Direct interfaces to file or communicate with regulators or SROs.
- Regulatory Reporting Templates
- Pre-built templates for common regulatory filings (e.g., SAR, STOR, MROS).
- Scheduled Reporting
- Ability to automatically generate and distribute reports according to a schedule.
Scalability and Performance
System ability to support business growth, large data volumes, and low-latency processing.
- 99th Percentile System Response Time
- System's response speed for 99% of requests/users.
- Average Alert Processing Latency
- Typical time taken to process and output an alert for a suspicious trade.
- Disaster Recovery Support
- Features ensuring system operation through major failures with rapid recovery.
- Event Processing Capacity
- Maximum number of events or trades surveilled per day.
- High Availability (HA) Architecture
- Implementation of redundancy, failover, and downtime minimization.
- Horizontal Scaling Support
- Ability to add compute nodes or instances to increase throughput on demand.
- Maximum Concurrent Users
- Number of users who can access and use the system simultaneously.
- Performance Monitoring Tools
- In-built tools for monitoring system load, latency, and resource utilization.
Support, Training, and Vendor Services
Vendor-provided assistance, onboarding, and continued support for optimal product deployment.
- 24/7 Technical Support
- Round-the-clock technical assistance for critical system issues.
- Dedicated Account Manager
- Named representative for ongoing client relationship and support.
- Knowledge Base/Help Center
- Online repository of product guides, FAQs, and documentation.
- Onboarding and Implementation Services
- Comprehensive support for system rollout, data migration, and testing.
- SLAs (Service Level Agreements)
- Guaranteed support response and resolution times.
- User Training Programs
- Initial and ongoing user training provided by vendor.
User Access, Roles, and Security
Features relating to user authentication, data access, and controls for sensitive or restricted information.
- Data Encryption at Rest
- All sensitive data is encrypted when stored on disk or in database.
- Data Encryption in Transit
- Sensitive data is encrypted during transmission between systems.
- Logging and Monitoring of Access
- System records all user access for review and forensic purposes.
- Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
- Support for MFA to prevent unauthorized access.
- Role-based Access Control
- Ability to define fine-grained user roles and permissions.
- Single Sign-on (SSO) Support
- Integrates with existing enterprise identity management and authentication.
- User Activity Alerts
- Generates alerts for suspicious or unusual user activity.