Webinar takeaways from Eventus Systems and Titan Regulation & Advisory
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the world in ways that few could have predicted and the resulting turmoil in financial markets has forced many firms to scramble for solutions. In this environment, a sense of perspective is needed in order to determine if current surveillance and compliance practices are sufficient, as well as what steps should be taken for both present and future demands from regulators. With that in mind, Travis Schwab from Eventus Systems and Julie Dixon of Titan Regulation & Advisory co-hosted a webinar that looked at market surveillance and compliance post Covid-19.
Surveillance and compliance takeaways
Schwab and Dixon co-hosted the webinar on April 23 and several key themes emerged from their free-wheeling conversation:
- Document, document, document: It can be difficult to keep track of changes made and actions taken in the midst of extreme market conditions, but it is extremely important to do the best job possible. Regulators may show a willingness to be flexible when it comes to hitting deadlines, but past experience indicates that firms will not be given a pass for resulting outright failures. Actions taken now might need to be explained and defended months, if not years, in the future. The best way to protect yourself is to have a strong audit trail.
- Be proactive: Whether it is system modifications and related testing or proactive communication with customers and/or regulators, it is important to stay in front of the curve as much as possible. When in doubt, be in touch: customers will appreciate it and regulators may be more likely to work with you if they don’t pop us as surprises.
- Keep up to date: Now is a good time to make a quick review of your business continuity plans (BCPs) and written supervisory procedures (WSPs). Regulators are already asking for BCPs and avoidable problems include simple fixes like checking for people listed that are no longer with the firm. Don’t wait to follow a set schedule to make changes to your policies. Instead, match your reviews to the speed of market events. More events and higher volatility mean that reviews should be conducted more frequently.
- Make the best use of technology: Recent extreme market volatility proved the point that the best use of machine learning (ML) tools is to help resolve alerts rather than just generate more of them. Applying ML to dramatically higher activity flows might only create a new mountain of alerts, while the responsible application of ML to help resolve and reduce existing alert flow leads to greater insight and better results.
- We’ve seen this one before: Just as the events of 2008 led to Dodd Frank and MiFID, we should expect to see both new and evolving regulatory responses flowing out of the lessons learned from the Great Lockdown. Anticipate where we might go so that you’re well positioned to respond as needed.
Responding to challenges posed by Covid-19
For most of us, the good news is that existing systems and processes have held up very well to date through what have been extremely volatile and unusual circumstances. Times are trying and there’s no way of knowing how markets will react as the pandemic continues, but lessons learned so far have been more insightful than devastating. Count on Eventus to continue to make sense of events and provide top-notch surveillance, compliance and risk management solutions to match your capital markets needs.
To view the webinar in its entirety, click here.
About Eventus Systems
Eventus Systems, Inc. offers Validus, one of the leading global trade surveillance and market risk platforms. Available as a cloud-based or real-time enterprise on-premise solution, Validus provides sophisticated market surveillance and financial risk capabilities, enabling clients to solve some of the most pressing regulatory challenges. For more information, contact us at info@eventussytems.com