Trading Technology Certification

As part of the Financial Commission’s certification process of trading platforms, in order to help ensure that at-a-minimum a basis is established using the criteria listed below, we require applicants submit all requested information as described and any additional that may be asked for. The Certification process helps ensure that our supervisory responsibilities with regards to the dispute resolution process that the Financial Commission facilitates will remain fair and equitable.

Some items in the following questionnaire below may not apply to you. For example, if the system is hosted on your licensee’s data servers, which you have no control of. Nonetheless, applicants must let us know of such arrangements and provide the Financial Commission with minimum technical requirements to licensee’s infrastructure, as explained in the guidelines below.

In addition to questions, the Financial Commission must review technology providers written procedures to address the security, capacity and integrity of trading, and confirm such procedures are being followed.

Certification Guidelines Questionnaire (To be completed by all applicants):

1. System security

• Authentication process
• Firewalls, Data encryption algorithm and suspicious activity monitoring
• Authorization process
• Periodic Testing
• System Administration procedures

2. System capacity

• Server infrastructure and system backup procedures
• Capacity monitoring procedures
• Stress-test procedure
• Software update procedure

3. Instrument and ordertypes

• All instruments available within platform
• List all types of orders that are available in the platform

4. Pricing and execution policy

• List of quote-feed providers
• Can broker set restrictions on trades? If yes, please describe.
• Does system maintain applied restrictions logs?
• Can broker adjust the price feed? If yes, please describe who can do so and under which circumstances?
• Does system has a manual price change/input logs?
• Does system has “bad print” or “price spike” protection?
• Can broker set or execute orders on behalf of clients?
• Does system maintain manual execution logs?

5. Reporting and record keeping

• System must store tick data for at least 45 days.
• System must have detailed report on all trades and orders places by the client or by the company on behalf of the client
• Breakdown procedures that contain responsible employees for major blocks of the system and their main duties

6. Business continuitu/disaster recovery plan

Financial Commission believes that disaster recovery and business continuity issues are of utmost importance and trading technology providers must take a proactive approach to ensure that they have an adequate disaster recovery plan in place.

Disaster Recovery plan must contain the following information:

• Backup Facilities
• Implementation of Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Plan
• Disruptions of Third-Parties
• Annual Testing
• Communication with the Financial Commission
• Employee and Emergency Contact Information

Completed answers and requested information to the questions above should be submitted to the certification board of the Financial Commission, either in Microsoft Word Format, or PDF format

Submit a Request For Certification