View all text of Subjgrp 7 [§ 242.800 - § 242.835]

§ 242.821 - Core Principle 4—Monitoring of trading and trade processing.

(a) General. The security-based swap execution facility shall:

(1) Establish and enforce rules or terms and conditions defining, or specifications detailing:

(i) Trading procedures to be used in entering and executing orders traded on or through the facilities of the security-based swap execution facility; and

(ii) Procedures for trade processing of security-based swaps on or through the facilities of the security-based swap execution facility; and

(2) Monitor trading in security-based swaps to prevent manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions of the delivery or cash settlement process through surveillance, compliance, and disciplinary practices and procedures, including methods for conducting real-time monitoring of trading and comprehensive and accurate trade reconstructions.

(b) Market oversight obligations. A security-based swap execution facility shall:

(1) Collect and evaluate data on its members' market activity on an ongoing basis in order to detect and prevent manipulation, price distortions, and, where possible, disruptions of the physical-delivery or cash-settlement process;

(2) Monitor and evaluate general market data in order to detect and prevent manipulative activity that would result in the failure of the market price to reflect the normal forces of supply and demand;

(3) Demonstrate an effective program for conducting real-time monitoring of trading for the purpose of detecting and resolving abnormalities. A security-based swap execution facility shall employ automated alerts to detect abnormal price movements and unusual trading volumes in real time and instances or threats of manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions on at least a T + 1 basis. The T + 1 detection and analysis should incorporate any additional data that becomes available on a T + 1 basis, including the trade reconstruction data;

(4) Demonstrate the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct daily trading activity for the purpose of detecting instances or threats of manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions; and

(5) Have rules in place that allow it to intervene to prevent or reduce market disruptions. Once a threatened or actual disruption is detected, the security-based swap execution facility shall take steps to prevent the market disruption or reduce its severity.

(c) Monitoring of physical-delivery security-based swaps. For physical-delivery security-based swaps, the security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it:

(1) Monitors a security-based swap's terms and conditions as they relate to the underlying asset market; and

(2) Monitors the availability of the supply of the asset specified by the delivery requirements of the security-based swap.

(d) Additional requirements for cash-settled security-based swaps. (1) For cash-settled security-based swaps, the security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it monitors the pricing of the reference price used to determine cash flows or settlement.

(2) For cash-settled security-based swaps listed on the security-based swap execution facility where the reference price is formulated and computed by the security-based swap execution facility, the security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it monitors the continued appropriateness of its methodology for deriving that price and shall promptly amend any methodologies that result, or are likely to result, in manipulation, price distortions, or market disruptions, or impose new methodologies to resolve the threat of disruptions or distortions.

(3) For cash-settled security-based swaps listed on the security-based swap execution facility where the reference price relies on a third-party index or instrument, including an index or instrument traded on another venue, the security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it monitors for pricing abnormalities in the index or instrument used to calculate the reference price and shall conduct due diligence to ensure that the reference price is not susceptible to manipulation.

(e) Ability to obtain information. (1) A security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it has access to sufficient information to assess whether trading in security-based swaps listed on its market, in the index or instrument used as a reference price, or in the underlying asset for its listed security-based swaps is being used to affect prices on its market. The security-based swap execution facility shall demonstrate that it can obtain position and trading information directly from members that conduct substantial trading on its facility or through an information-sharing agreement with other venues or a third-party regulatory service provider. If the position and trading information is not available directly from its members but is available through information-sharing agreements with other trading venues or a third-party regulatory service provider, the security-based swap execution facility should cooperate in such information-sharing agreements.

(2) A security-based swap execution facility shall have rules that require its members to keep records of their trading, including records of their activity in the underlying asset, and related derivatives markets, and make such records available, upon request, to the security-based swap execution facility or, if applicable, to its regulatory service provider and the Commission. The security-based swap execution facility may limit the application of this requirement to only those members that conduct substantial trading on its facility.

(f) Risk controls for trading. A security-based swap execution facility shall establish and maintain risk control mechanisms to prevent and reduce the potential risk of market disruptions, including, but not limited to, market restrictions that pause or halt trading under market conditions prescribed by the security-based swap execution facility. Such risk control mechanisms shall be designed to avoid market disruptions without unduly interfering with that market's price discovery function. The security-based swap execution facility may choose from among controls that include: pre-trade limits on order size, price collars or bands around the current price, message throttles, daily price limits, and intraday position limits related to financial risk to the clearing member, or design other types of controls, as well as clear error-trade and order-cancellation policies. Within the specific array of controls that are selected, the security-based swap execution facility shall set the parameters for those controls, so that the specific parameters are reasonably likely to serve the purpose of preventing market disruptions and price distortions.

(g) Trade reconstruction. A security-based swap execution facility shall have the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct all trading on its facility. All audit-trail data and reconstructions shall be made available to the Commission in a form, manner, and time that is acceptable to the Commission.

(h) Regulatory service provider. A security-based swap execution facility shall comply with the rules in this section through a dedicated regulatory department or by contracting with a regulatory service provider pursuant to § 242.819(e).