NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NASDAQ OMX (Nasdaq:NDAQ) has been selected to deliver its SMARTS Integrity market surveillance system to the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), a central EU institution in the creation of a Single Energy Market to the benefit of all EU consumers, to monitor the European wholesale gas and electricity markets covering both spot trading and derivative markets across Europe in accordance with the obligations under the REMIT legislation.
The REMIT legislation, otherwise known as Regulation (EU) No 1227/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency, came into force in December 2011 in order to prohibit market manipulation and insider trading in EU wholesale energy markets. ACER is the central EU institution tasked with the market monitoring of pan-European wholesale energy markets and with data collection from market participants as soon as the REMIT implementing acts on data collection apply, currently expected in the first half of 2014.
SMARTS Integrity — provided by OMX Technology AB and selected through an open tender in competition with a number of market surveillance providers — will provide ACER with a surveillance platform to address three top priorities the Agency considers essential in complying with REMIT. These are the ability to detect insider trading, market manipulation and attempted market manipulation across European markets. The solution will amalgamate trading across every European energy market under REMIT and provide ACER with a consolidated view on a pan-European basis. In addition to the ACER implementation, the system will be available for sublicensing to National Regulatory Authorities to enable them to meet their tasks in monitoring wholesale energy markets at a national level.
NASDAQ OMX's surveillance solution will support ACER in gaining consumer and other market participants' confidence in the integrity of electricity and gas markets, as well as ensuring prices set on wholesale energy markets reflect fair and competitive interplay between supply and demand, while stifling any profits gained from market abuse.
"We are honored to be chosen to work with ACER on their historical and groundbreaking regulatory efforts in the Pan-European energy and derivative markets," said Paul McKeown, Vice President of Market Technology, NASDAQ OMX. "As the world's leading market surveillance solution, SMARTS is dedicated to collaborating with regulatory authorities such as ACER and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to investigate market abuse and maintain market integrity through our best-in-class technology. This project is a ground breaking initiative in terms of delivering pan-European market surveillance."
About NASDAQ OMX:
The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 25 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.99% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed companies worth $6 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about SMARTS Integrity and NASDAQ OMX's other products and offerings. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are not limited to factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements.
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