IIROC licenses new tech for better market surveillance

IIROC, the self-regulatory body for investment dealers, says it is stepping up its market surveillance capabilities after reaching an agreement to use upgraded Nasdaq technology.

The agreement, announced Thursday, allows IIROC to use new Nasdaq SMARTS surveillance technology to oversee all securities trading on debt and equity markets in Canada. The upgraded Nasdaq SMARTS system, expected to be ready by the summer of 2018, examines scenarios across multiple trading venues and asset classes, a release says.

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IIROC conducts the oversight in tandem with other regulators to help ensure compliance with trading rules and securities regulations.

The new technology is capable of monitoring up to one billion transactions daily in real time, a release says. It will support cross‐asset surveillance and investigations and allow for quicker detection of trading anomalies across multiple products and dealer firms, IIROC says. It can also accommodate the addition of new asset classes.

The system’s readings can alert regulators about potential manipulative and deceptive activity in debt and equity markets. IIROC currently uses an earlier version of Nasdaq SMARTS for market surveillance and investigations.

In fiscal 2016‐2017, IIROC says, the group monitored more than 446 million trades on five stock exchanges and eight Equity Alternative Trading Systems. It co-ordinated 1,470 trading halts and 83 cease trade orders, and triggered 53 single stock circuit breakers.

Nasdaq provides surveillance technology for 47 marketplaces.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.